Much Ado About Draco
by szaranea
Summary: chapter five up What happens when Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy accidentally revive the most evil Dark Lord this world has ever seen, apart from ending up in a world of fairy tales and getting involved with each other? Please, r&r!
1. Of Glowing Boxershorts And Quidditch In ...

MUCH ADO ABOUT DRACO (1/?)  
  
Chapter one: Of Quidditch in skirts and glowing boxershorts  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters you may have recognized from the HP books. Those belong to the faboulous J.K.Rowling. I own all the others, such as Sheila Wood  
  
Takes place in Ginny's 6th year, will later include some D/G and (only peripheral) some H/Cho. If you want to know the plot, you'll just have to read.  
  
This story is dedicated to my beta-reader silver and to my history teacher, because he made me starting this fic by making his classes so boring.  
  
„Hey Gin, where are you going?" "Library" Ginny replied her friend, Sheila Wood. "What, now, today? Girl, it's SUNDAY!" "So what?" "Well, you are not going to study, are you?" Ginny sighed. Sheila was the laziest girl she had ever seen. She never seemed to study, and always copied her homework, if possible. But she somehow managed to get good grades, and was almost always able to answer the questions in class. Ginny secretly admired her for that, but would never have admitted it in front of Sheila. So she just said, "Well, the world's unfair. There are those who have to study to be good at school, those who study and aren't good at school, those who don't study and don't get good grades, and there is you."  
  
Sheila looked a bit startled for a moment but then her usual broad grin slid back on her face, revealing her white teeth. "What do you mean with that? That there are also persons that are so intelligent they don't need to study and are always surrounded by people who would die for listening to one of those very rare intelligent conversations, and who get loveletters all the time cause they've got the brains to recite the bible backwards and in arabic after taking a look at the index only once?"  
  
Ginny was impressed again. How does that girl manage to speak so fast and much without breathing or turning blue? But instead of speaking out her thoughts she just said: "Well, I guess the guys don't like you because of your loose tongue. And about that intelligent conversation thing: I know you since you were three years old, and the most intelligent thing you ever said was at the age of six, when you asked Percy to shut up because you would get sick if you heard another word about the history of the-…"  
  
"-yeah, okay, don't say it, I still got a trauma!" Ginny smiled. Sheila always said she had a trauma. But the reasons were always different ones: Potions, Percy, Draco Malfoy, Percy, homework, turtles (don't ask!), Percy, dungbombs, Draco Malfoy, Percy, Snape, Percy, Draco Malfoy, her brother's talk about quidditch, which was quite understandable, with Oliver Wood being her brother, Percy, Draco Malfoy, and so on.  
  
She seemed to have lots of traumas of Percy and Malfoy. Percy, because he always bored off her pants when she was wearing some, and Malfoy, because,… well, Ginny thought to herself, maybe I did talk too much of him lately. Well, but that's her problem, I didn't force her to be my best friend.  
  
Sheila waved her hand in front of Ginnys face. "Heeeeeeeeello, Giiiiiiiiiiinny, are you sleeping? Or thinking of that bastard again?" "Huh?" "Now really Gin, we oughta talk!" Ginny sighed. "About what?" She noticed that Sheila didn't grin any more, but that she was looking rather serious now. "You know, that …crap." "I don't know what you mean!" Ginny replied, knowing exactly that Sheila wanted to talk about Malfoy.  
  
"You always change the topic when I try to speak about it. Are you serious about that, I mean he's a Malfoy!" "Oh, you were talking about him. You could have told me when I asked you." "Ginny!" "Yes?" Ginny asked innocently. Now Sheila was clearly loosing her temper. "You know what I think? That you are making a horrible mistake with all that, and being your best friend I won't sit here watching you daydreaming about the most horrible person who ever dared to place his bum on this damned earth, you hear me?"  
  
Now I did go too far, Ginny thought, because Sheila seldom swore.  
  
"What, you are still in love with Potter?" a drawling voice coming from behind her exclaimed, trying to sound shocked. "You know, your chances are quite good, Weasley, considering the fact that I just found him snogging that Ravenclaw Seeker, Chang." Ginny spun around furiously, to take a look at the person behind her, although she already knew who it was. "I am NOT in love with Harry!" she almost shrieked. So much for that thing about acting absolutely cool when he's around.  
  
"Yeah, I totally agree. How stupid of me to think that. Tut-tut, really, I don't know how I got the impression that you were- …" "Shut up Malfoy", she cut him short, "if you don't know what you're talking about, just don't talk. Even the ancient roman people knew that, or don't you know the sentence 'si tacuisses, philosophum mansisses'? That means: if you would have been quiet you would still be considered of as being wise. But then you don't need to fear being thought of as an idiot now, 'cause nobody ever thought you were clever!" she blurted out, secretly calling herself a liar. "You are just jealous because the girls are much more interested in Harry than they are in you. Maybe that's because he has the looks!" Liar! A voice in her head screamed again. He's the cutest boy in school, plus he hasn't got a girlfriend. Draco just smirked and said "Well, I never expected a Weasley telling me I was ugly. But then, I guess you are just not used to seeing someone handsome, and for that I forgive you." "Well, I'm honored, your majesty, and I beg your pardon for speaking the truth, it will never happen again!" Ginny said, trying to imitate one of those complicated bows that were common three hundred years ago, but couldn't keep her balance and fell down after stumbling for a while.  
  
Draco laughed and then turned to go away, not noticing Ginny muttering something while pointing her wand at him.  
  
"What was that?" Sheila asked, while she helped Ginny to come back to an erect position. "That? Oh, just a luminuos charm. Makes his underwear show little hearts and glow in the dark. I'd like to see his face when he notices that." "I'd say you would rather like to see the underwear! But I didn't want to know how you hexed his clothes but what that little "fight" was?" "Well, a fight of course. You know, that sort of thing that happens when two people who despise each other cross their ways. It is a rather common thing, you know."  
  
"I would say that you flirted." "Me? Flirting with Malfoy?" "Yes!" "Are you crazy? Are you feeling good? Have you got a headache? Did you dream of the big green wall with the yellow dots recently?" "No. I just got the impression that you have taken a liking on Malfoy, cuz you are talking about him quite often lately. And what has that thing with the green wall got to do with Malfoy?" "Well, my greatgrandaunt used to dream about a green wall with yellow dots when she started thinking of herself as pope Alexander XI. And I am NOT in love with Malfoy. He's an arrogant, selfish, mugglehating, always sneering idiot with glowing underwear!" "Thanks to you" Sheila said laughing, "but my mom used to say that about Cesare Zabini too!" "Yeah, and then she married your father. I can't blame her for not liking that bastard." "Erm, yeah, but you know, when she said that she didn't like him, she had a crush on him. And you … -ha, look, it is two o'clock, madam Pince did certainly close the library by now! Going to visit her mother!" Ginny swore silently stormed in the direction of the Gryffindor common room, meeting Ron and Hermione, who were looking for Harry. Ginny stopped and said "I don't know wether it's true, but I think he's having a little snogging session with Cho. Bye"  
  
After that she said the password (Zorocoliginocology) which had to be changed soon because ninety percent of the Gryffindors weren't able to say it correctly. (Neville even had to spend the night in the hallway once because the fat Lady wouldn't let him in after he said zorororororlogy)  
  
Sheila can be so annoying Ginny thought when she rushed past her classmates who were busy with playing Exploding Snap. Sometimes I get the impression that she is able to read my mind, and I certainly don't like that. I can't be alone in real live for two seconds, so I think it would be only fair to leave me alone in my thoughts. You are being unfair! A voice in her head said. I would surely notice if she read your thoughts. She just knows you, she's your friend! She would be a very bad friend if she wouldn't notice! No, she wouldn't Ginny thought back. I think it is not that obvious. When I talk about him, I am always using him in connection with words like crap, idiot, and so on. I don't walk around sighing (she sighed) and I don't sit around and say things like: if he wouldn't sneer all the time he could be quite cute, and if he would be a bit nicer then he would be, erm… a bit nicer? Haha, intelligent, you don't speak it out, but hey, I'm part of your mind, I'm your conscious, I know what you are thinking. And especially in History of magic classes I get to hear his name more often than Professor Binns says the word "and", which would be quite often. Oh, stop it, Ginny said entering her dorm, She slammed the door shut behind her, sat down on her bed, closed the red curtains and lay down to take a rest, more because she was angry than because she was tired.  
  
But about two minutes later someone drew back the curtains hesitantly. "Hey Gin" she heard Sheilas voice say. "Are you angry with me? I, I just thought you might want to talk to someone about it and you were just afraid that I might think you were stupid or something. I don't think you're stupid. Well, he's not what you'd call a nice person, and he keeps making fun of you and your family, and he's insulting you and Ron all the time, but in some way, he's… erm well, at least he's handsome."  
  
"Thanks a lot Sheila, but I don't know why you are telling me this. I already told you that I am not in love with him." Sheila sat down on the bed and looked at Ginny, wearing an almost hurt expression. "I know that you are Gin, and I don't know why you are refusing to admit it. You should have seen your face down there. As long as he was present you managed to look coolly, maybe a bit annoyed, but as soon as he turned away and left your eyes went soft and dreamy, just as they used to when you had a crush on Harry and he talked to you. Gin, I know you well enough to see when you're in love with someone. What are you afraid of? I won't tell Ron, I promise. And besides, I already know it, but I'd like you to admit it. I'd feel better then, I don't know why. Please, Gin" Sheila gave Ginny a pleading look. "Well, Sheila … I, I, erm, what do you want to hear? You said you already knew, so I don't know what I should tell you." She was feeling kind of helpless. Idiot, she thought, now she can be sure it's true, and she'll tease you, tell Ron, who will kill first Malfoy, then me, and then … Nonsense. I think it was right to tell her. The omnipresent voice in her head announced. She's your best friend. Shut up No way Ah, go away, leave me alone! I'd love to, dear, if you tell me how to do that! Ginny pulled a grimace and tried to turn her attention back to Sheila, who was watching her with great interest. "Gin?" "hm" "You like him?" "hm" "I mean not his looks, but the character." "hm" "you're not very informative. Does 'hm' mean yes or no?" "hm"  
  
Sheila sighed, said something about being sorry and then slapped her friend in the face. Ginny jumped staring at Sheila's still raised hand. "Hey, why 'd you do that?" "Cuz you weren't listening. And besides, I said I was sorry!" "Ah, now I am relieved." "So, do you like him?" "Erm…" Ginny blushed. What should she say? 'He always treats me like crap, is mean and hates me and my family, is an awful git, but else I like him' wasn't a very good option.  
  
Why do you like him? Cause he's cute and I guess he could be really nice. Sure, you're right, as always. Hmpf what does hmpf mean?  
  
Ginny sighed. Life could be so cruel. Her best friend was posing uncomfortable questions and her (totally insane) conscious thought that she was an idiot.  
  
"Well?" Sheila asked. She was getting slightly impatient, because Ginny didn't bother to answer. "Well, I can't think of anything that would make him a person to be liked easily, but erm, silent waters run deep. Hm" she smiled shyly at Sheila. "You couldn't help me finding any positive aspects of him?" "well, he's handsome." "And besides?" "uh…" "I know: good Quidditch player!" „Yeah, Gin, you're right!" "Any other ideas?" "Good at school?" "Is he?" "Don't know. Hm, I guess we could count the fact that he once got mad at Crabbe and Goyle and jinxed them." "yeah, I noticed that they still flinch every time he draws his wand!" "Really? I guess we're at the end now!" "Well, what about him looking strikingly good in black silk?" "We already had the handsome thing!" "yeah, but he's good at Quidditch!" "No news to me!" "Yeah, and … oh my god!" "What?" "We, we got a match against Slytherin next week!" "Yes, indeed, now I'm surprised. Where do you get all these news? I did hear that one only two months ago!" "Oh, very funny, I'm on the team! You think I can concentrate?" "Um, no!"  
  
God! Ginny thought desperately. (yes? Said her conscious) She had learned to cope not being distracted by Harry, but that had taken much effort and three months of practise.  
  
She had been on the team since her fourth year as a Chaser, then being only an average player, but she was accepted on the team because they were in desperate need for Chasers. But over the years she had learned a lot, and was now a very skilled player. She would have never dreamed of it when she was younger, but the team now needed her just as much as it needed Harry. Somehow she liked the thought of being needed. Not just the little sister of six very protective older brothers, but a VIQP (=very important quidditch player, *gg*) As she was thinking of that her mind was drifting away, and she was sinking into the welcoming embrace of sleep. The last thing she saw was a glimpse of Sheila, snoring quietly beside her.  
  
  
  
After the fight he had had with the Weasley girl Draco took a walk, and sat down in his favorite corner of the outside walls of Hogwarts. Somehow that niche was really comfortable, and he felt cozy there. Even a Malfoy needs to feel cozy sometimes he thought. But he didn't just like the niche because it was comfortable, but because Crabbe and Goyle didn't know it. In his first few years at Hogwarts he had always been flanked by those two. And he had somehow felt superior with them, having someone to command and to give orders. But when he got older, they started to bore and annoy him. Watching them eating was nauseating and listening to their senseless, stupid and bizarre conversation made you either confused, depressive, go mad or aggressive, or all of it. So he tried to ignore them and hung around alone or with other Slytherin boys.  
  
As weird as this might sound he thought, but Crabbe and Goyle were bad for my reputation. That was true, because if you were thought of as someone to piss off others it wouldn't do you any good hanging around with two idiots. You'd end up being considered as a clown.  
  
Draco started pulling small stones out of the wall and smashing them on the floor. He was very angry, because that Weasley girl had jinxed his underwear, and he hadn't been able to fix it yet. The library was already closed, and he thought that it would be quite embarassing to ask someone how to turn boxershorts that were showing little hearts and were glowing in the dark back to normal. So he had put on some other pair of boxers and had hidden the glowing ones, while swearing to take revenge on Weasley.  
  
Yeah, Weasley. He didn't know why, but recently he enjoyed annoying her more than pissing off Potter and Weasleys brother, Weasley (haha, surprise, surprise) maybe that was because she was wittier than those two and worthier to battle because she was more intelligent. Not that he'd ever like her, but he appreciated equal opponents.  
  
The only thing was that she had the habit to recite these damned latin sentences like Carpe Diem, and he had to look them up in the dictionary all the time. If he didn't, she could just as well say that Gryffindor password he had heard Potter complain about. Rumor was saying that it caused Longbottom to sleep in the hallway and even Mc Gonagall had trouble with pronouncing it.  
  
Suddenly a familiar voice disturbed his thoughts. "Draco! What are you doing here?" Draco sighed at the sight of the speaker. "I was trying to be alone for five minutes." "Well, I saw you going here ten minutes ago, so your time's out. You know what Blaise just told me? He said he had seen you wearing a glowing pair of boxershorts with little hearts on them! Is that true? That'd be soooo sweet! You have a pair of boxershorts with hearts?"  
  
Draco frowned. Damn, he thought. "Well, Pansy, I, erm… someone um, jinxed them, you know. Oh, sod off, will you?" "Jinxed? Oh, was that the Weasley girl? They say you had an argument with her and she kissed the floor!" Pansy said cheerfully. Oh dear, Draco thought, if she isn't going to shut up within the next five seconds, I'm gonna kill her!  
  
"Draco, you look as if you had just bitten on a lemon!" Draco cocked an eyebrow. Now this is surprising, I thought I always did! I shouldn't have stopped practising that look in front of the mirror last year! "Pansy?" "Yes?" "I asked you to sod off, remember?" "Oh, yes."  
  
He gratefully watched her leaving, thinking that she was almost as stupid as Crabbe and Goyle. Jesus, am I the only intelligent person in Slytherin? Are Potter and Weasley right? Does out house consist of idiots ninety percentagely? No, it doesn't. Exceptions confirm the rule, and those three are the exceptions.  
  
Sighing he stood up and left for the Slytherin dungeon to play a game of chess. He'd do anything to get these disturbing thoughts off his mind, he'd probably even kiss Potter. No, maybe that he wouldn't.  
  
When he entered the Slytherin common room he looked for Blaise Zabini, and found him sitting in an armchair near the fire. Where else? He thought, because Blaise was almost always freezing and complaining about it.  
  
"I hear you are telling stories about my underwear?" he said, looking grim. "Erm, I just thought that it was very unusual, I mean, you and, erm hearts and so on, you know." Draco cocked an eyebrow. He didn't quite know what was so interesting about his underwear suddenly so that the whole school wanted to know what it looked like. And if he wanted to wear glow-in-the- dark boxers with hearts on them, that was his own business, and Blaise needn't make a scandal of it.  
  
"Is it some sort of sacrilege, wearing funny boxershorts?" he asked in a voice that indixcated clearly that he wanted to hear 'no' for the answer. "Well, you know, it was just that I was a bit surprised, and when Pansy asked me what kind of underwear you are wearing I couldn't keep it, sorry." Now this is disgusting! Pansy Parkinson walks around asking other persons about my underwear. Yuck!  
  
"You know Blaise, I'd appreciate it if you kept things like that for yourself in future, got it?" Blaise shifted uncomfortably in his chair, and finally answerded with a quiet 'yes'  
  
Draco smiled coldly and left the fireplace, because he couldn't stand the heat. It wasn't as if he didn't like warmth, but Blaise always magicked the fire to an abnormal temperature, and sitting there was like sitting in an oven. Besides the fire smoked like hell. So the Slytherins used to sit only in the armchairs farthest away from the fire. But even in the far ends of the room it was boiling hot. Ha, and those Gryffindors always think we are freezing all the time. Draco laughed in thoughts, opening the door to his dorm and sitting down on his bed. He opened a drawer of his bedside table and pulled out a book that was called "Collection of ancient latin quotes" and tried to find 'si tacuisses philosophum mansisses'. He always checked whether she had translated it right, because he might be able to piss her off if she hadn't. But to his dissappointment she had translated it correctly, and he tossed the book away, angrily.  
  
This is so annoying! A Weasley knowing something better than I do! I should have taken those latin lessons my mom nearly forced me to take.  
  
  
  
Ginny woke up and noticed that Sheila was still sleeping by her side. Groggily she checked her watch and was sober in an instant. It was four in the afternoon. She had taken a nap! She hadn't done that since she was five years old.  
  
Oh, hello sleepyhead, how do you do? Have you slept well? You know that I think you were being quite unfair? Your dreams are sooooooooooo boring, always the same. Drawling voice, steel-grey eyes, silvery- blond hair and so on. Oh, would you leave me alone just once? You know, I would be much happier being his subconscious, because he isn't as stupid, boring and ugly as you are!  
  
"Shut up!" Ginny shrieked desperately. Sheila immediately awoke and asked sleepily: "Wassup? Y'know I's sleepin, y'don have ta shout, I wasn talkin!" she said, swallowing the endings of the words she was saying, stifling a yawn.  
  
"I wasn't talking to you, Sheila" "But with whom were you talking then? We're the only ones in here" "Erm, I was kind of talking to myself…" "Huh?" "Oh, forget it!" After some while she asked timidly "Sheila?" "Hm?" "You think I'm stupid?" "No" "Boring?" "No" "Erm, ugly?" "No, for heavens sake, why do you ask?" "Um, I was just interested." "I hope you won't start being one of those silly cows who are always running through the corridors asking everybody whether they were beautiful!" "I won't do that, don't worry. So I'm not ugly." "No, you are quite good-looking. You know, I would like to have your pale skin or red hair." "Oh no, that'd be horrible. Try to imagine your grin on my face. No, you should better be happy with dark skin and brown hair. pale skin never tans, it can only get a sunburn, and that very easily!" "Hm, maybe you're right. But with you it looks good." "Thanks" "Gin?" "Yeah?" "You have to be on the Quidditch pitch in five minutes for practise." "What? Oh dear, oh dear, where are my Quidditch robes? I can't find them! I'm going to be late. Harry will kill me!" She ran around in the room madly, trying to find her Quidditch robes.  
  
Finally Sheila suggested that she should fly in her schoolrobes and take the short way to the pitch, which would be by broom and through the window. But Ginny replied shocked: "I'm wearing a skirt! I can't fly in a skirt!" "Well, looks like you have to!" So Ginny grabbed her broom and set off through the window.  
  
I'm wearing a skirt for Quidditch! I hope you won't be able to see my underwear! What if? Her nasty conscious replied. Someone might be able to see your underwear! That's nothing to worry about, the hospital wing is near the pitch, so he won't suffer for long. In the worst case he'd spend the rest of his life at St. Mungo's, but that shouldn't bother you, as long as you don't have to go there.  
  
Ginny sighed. She did that quite often recently, but that's no wonder having a very nasty voice in your head that talked nonstop. Maybe she would be at St. Mungo's sooner or later anyway if that wouldn't change. I'm going mad, she thought desperately. Not going mad, you were mad since the day you were born!  
  
By then she had reached the Quidditch pitch, and she saw that the rest of the team was already waiting for her. "Sorry guys, I wasn't able to find my Quidditch robes!" she said as they eyed her curiosly.  
  
"Well, as you are here, we can start now." Harry said "We have an important match against Slytherin on wednesday, so we have to work on our tactics and flying even harder!" "Why is that game so important Harry? It's the first one this year!" Colin asked sheepishly. The rest of the team gave him surprised looks. "Well, first because every match is important, and second because it's against Slytherin! Do you want to loose against that bunch of …"  
  
"Bunch of what? I'd be careful what you say now Potter, because if it's something unpleasant I'll tell Madam Hooch that you tried to steal that Practise lesson from us. But then, I think I'm going to tell her anyway!" the familiar drawling voice of Draco Malfoy announced, making Ginnys heart jump.  
  
Harry spun around and glared at Draco. "I didn't steal that lesson. I signed in for it last week." He hissed. Harry hissed very rarely, and if he did he was probably doing it because he talked in parseltongue.  
  
Draco smiled, if you could call it that. In fact he just twitched the corners of his mouth, but the rest of his face was looking bored as always. "Erm no, Potter. You signed up for next week, sorry. Now leave!" he commanded.  
  
"I did not sign up for next week!" Harry said firmly. "You did, go and ask Madam Pince!" "No, I won't, because in time I'm back the time will be over!" "Well then Potter, what about a little match? It won't count for the Quidditch cup, but it will show who's better." Harry looked at him for a moment, scowling, but the aggreed.  
  
"Everybody on his or her brooms" he shouted and opened the box with the quaffle, bludgers and snitch.  
  
Ginny stared at him for a second. He couldn't be doing this, could he? What was he thinking, for gods sake? The Slytherins would foul them all the time, and there was no Madam Pince to stop them! And besides they weren't allowed to play matches if it wasn't for the cup.  
  
But she didn't have any time to think any more, because the others were preparing to start the game. "OFF" Draco and Harry shouted in unison, and everybody kicked away from the ground.  
  
Ginny was feeling a mixture of anger, nervosity and fear. She was in posession of the Quaffle right now, after Colin had passed it to her. She made a somehow complicated manoeuver to avoid a Bludger that was hit towards her and then passed the quaffle to Persephone Johnson, the little sister of Angelina Johnson, who wanted to pass it to Colin, but one of the Slytherin Chasers caught it instead. He was now heading towards the goalpost, but had to drop the Quaffle after being hit by a Bludger on the arm. Ginny quickly caught it and sped away with it, her heart racing. Suddenly she didn't know where to go anymore, because her way was blocked by the three Slytherin chasers. When she wanted to change her direction the two beaters flanked her sides, and she stopped in midair, alarmed by the grim faces of her opponents. Having five Slytherins staring at you dangerously, you don't feel too comfortable. Where were the others? There was no one in sight. She had to get rid of the quaffle and escape that situation veeeeeeeeery quickly. Suddenly she got a glimpse of Harry who was circling above her, eyeing the Slytherins suspiciously and threw the Quaffle towards him. Harry caught it, looking a bit startled, but he didn't have any time to do anything with it because Colin just took it out of Harrys hand and flew towards the goalpost at full speed. He just raised his hand to score a goal when they heard Madam Hooch yelling at them from the ground.  
  
"Team captains down here, NOW!" She yelled. Harry and Draco descended on the ground slowly, both looking kind of uncomfortable.  
  
"Really, you should know better! You know very well that you are not allowed to play without a referee, and even if I would agree to watch the game it wouldn't be allowed by Professor Dumbledore. Detention for all of you, tomorrow night, and 50 points will be taken from Gryffindor and Slytherin. And I will see the teamcaptains in Dumbledores office in half an hour! Now go and change!"  
  
With that she stomped off the pitch, her feet leaving deep prints on the muddy ground.  
  
One after the other the players left the pitch, silently, everybody in his own thoughts. Just the moment when Ginny was opening the door to enter Hogwarts she felt herself being dragged in the shadows by someone. After her eyes got used to the darkness she saw that it was Draco.  
  
"Good evening Miss Weasley!" he said grinning. "You got a nice pair of knickers there. But I still think that glowing underwear looks better. Did you ever try that?"  
  
Ginnys felt herself blushing and silently hoped she would get the chance to kill Sheila before her anger would vanish. After a moment she called Malfoy something very rude and tried to walk away.  
  
But he held her back and said: "tut, tut, Weasley, language! Where did you learn such words? Something like that isn't appropriate for a young girl like you!"  
  
"Malfoy, let go of me!" He looked at her, pretending to think about it. "Why? That wouldn't be any fun, would it?"  
  
Ginny swallowed. He was still pressing her against the wall, and she could feel his body so near to hers, she could even feel his ribcage slowly rising and sinking. Oh dear! I hope he doesn't feel my heartbeat, she tought. Well, he doesn't have to. I bet he can hear it, even a deaf man would be able to hear it.  
  
Ginny wanted to say something witty, or intelligent, but she wasn't able to think clear. She only felt his body against hers, and that made her feel like something was running up and down her spine.  
  
"Hey, what's up with you today? First you fall down face forward without any reason, then you play Quidditch in a skirt – did I already mention I preferred glowing …" "yes" "oh, then you are so confused you pass the quaffle to Potter and then you just stare into nowhere when spoken to! You should go and see Madam Pomfrey." "Oh, that is sooooooooo sweet of you to be concerned about my health, but I think that is just before you saw woman underwear for the first time in your life. It is only natural to be confused, Ron for example …" she broke off. She was standing in a niche with Draco Malfoy, standing very close to him, in fact and was telling him private things. "yes?" he said interested, "what did Ron do?" She pushed him away, slapping herself for it mentally and said something like that it wasn't his business and ran away.  
  
Thirty minutes later she was taking a hot shower and had an argument with her conscious, as it called itself, again. Now really, you are such an idiot! You'll never get that close to him again! I know! Why did you push him away then? I always thought you were a looser, but now I know you are even worse. You were lying in the arms of the man of your dreams and you ran away. Hey, I wasn't lying in his arms! Well, sorry, I must have gotten it all wrong. You weren't lying in his arms, sure, and did I tell you my mom was a big green turtle and my dad was a toaster, and I am a part of a balcony, I just didn't tell you because I thought you'd figure it out sooner or later without my help. Ahaha, very funny. May I give you a good advice, your balconyship? Never tell Sheila about your mom being a turtle. Why not? Uh, never mind.  
  
And with that she turned off the shower, got herself dressed and went to the Great Hall to get something to eat. It had been a very eventful day, and she was almost starving.  
  
Later that night, when she lay in bed, she was thinking of how nice it had been when she was so near Draco, and pitied herself that that had been the first and very likely also the last time. Then she sank into a deep, dreamless sleep. At least, she didn't remember the dream if she had had one.  
  
  
  
Draco sat in Dumbledores office, trying to ignore Potter and studying the things that lay on the headmaster's desk. It was in a state of complete disorder, and Draco, who was a very neat person wondered how Dumbledore knew where things were if he needed them. Perhaps he didn't.  
  
They had been sitting there for nearly half an hour now, and the headmaster still hadn't bothered to show up. That had caused Draco to make himself comfortable, meaning that he sat lazily in his chair, with his feet resting on the desk. Potter didn't look so comfortable. He sat bolt upright in his chair, and he clenched his fists, which made his knuckles go white.  
  
Jesus, he isn't afraid of Dumbledore, is he? Draco thought. But he didn't like thinking of Potter. So his mind began to wander, to the game earlier. Why had he asked Potter for a match? He knew that it was not allowed, and he didn't really enjoy the presence of Potter. But something in his mind had kept telling him, that it might piss off Weasley if Slytherin won. And he really wanted to piss her off.  
  
Weasley again. She was strange. He didn't know what she was thinking of, when she came to practise with a skirt. It had been quite a long skirt, okay, but it was still a skirt. She maybe wouldn't have done that if she had known that Creevey kept staring at her all the time, trying to get a glimpse of her underwear.  
  
Draco thought that was childish. Only small children liked to look under girl's skirts. But then, Weasley had quite long legs, and…Hey, what am I thinking? I certainly am NOT interested in Weasleys legs. But then, it had been quite a nice feeling, being so close to her. Otherways it might always be a nice feeling, being so close to a beautiful girl. He would never admit it to anyone, but in fact she was quite beaufiful, and that annoyed him. It would be easier to be mean to her if she was ugly. He could tell her that, and she surely would be hurt, would she? Too bad she's good-looking, he thought over and over again. Why can't I get my thoughts away from that damned Weasley girl?  
  
He was very relieved, when Dumbledore finally entered the room, because that would distract him. At least, he hoped it would.  
  
"You two are really horrible!" the headmaster sighed, sitting down. "Aren't there any school rules you haven't broken yet?" Potter Shifted uneasily in his chair, but Draco just smirked and said: "Well, let me think. I've got that big, ugly, hairy thing in my cupboard, I don't starch the oversized white collar I am obviously wearing, I am engaged to three women at least, and I don't write to my mother every half a week. I do not-…" "It's okay, we have really gotten the point. You have been a very bad boy. But I don't think you would find even one female human being that would be willing to marry you. And there is a school rule that we have to starch our collars? Ridiculous, since we don't even have these ugly white things." "Well Potter, there is another rule that says that we should wear some."  
  
"I haven't got time, so I just tell you that you might get detention for the rest of the year and will not be allowed to play Quidditch any more if anything like this happens again. Good day." And with that the headmaster left.  
  
Okay, he just said 52 words, and for that we had to wait three quarters of an hour. Great. I havent't got an idea how to spend my time better! Draco thought. Then he and Potter left the office, Potter towards the Gryffindor, Draco towards the Slytherin common room.  
  
But halfway to there Draco stopped. He really didn't have an idea what to do now. He didn't have any homework to do, he was not in the mood for reading, and he did certainly not want to go to the boiling heat in the Slytherin common room. Maybe he should try to snog Cho Chang, just to piss off Potter. But he didn't want to do that either, because he preferred younger girls. Cho was a year older than he and Potter were, but she still attended Hogwarts, because she had taken a year off after that Hufflepuff guy what's his name again? Diggory or something had died. Now she was in 7th year too, something that came in handy for Potter.  
  
But Draco Malfoy didn't go for older girls. He usually picked his dates from the 6th years. Weasley's in 6th year! An unpleasant voice inside his head screamed. Draco moaned. Not her again he thought. He was beginning to think that she haunted him.  
  
Maybe I should go and get some sleep and make sure to use a spell that I won't dream anything. Just to be sure… with that final thought he went to bed.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED  
  
Next chapter will include a rather messy breakfast, the Quidditch game, and a wizarding duel in the forbidden forest ending in a fiasco, because a powerful dark wizard will be revived. Just one hint: it's neither Voldemort, nor Slytherin. 


	2. Of A Wizarding Duel And A Travelling Min...

MUCH ADO ABOUT DRACO (2/?)  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters you may have recognized from the HP books. Those belong to the faboulous J.K.Rowling. I own all the others, such as Sheila Wood, Perth Johnson, Carmencita Bell, Robin Wainwright,…  
  
Takes place in Ginny's 6th year, will later include some D/G and (only peripheral) some H/Cho. If you want to know the plot, you'll just have to read.  
  
This story is dedicated to my lovely beta-readers Silver and Silvi, and to my dear friend Cari. (first because she's my friend and second she forced me to dedicate it to her too because she counted the words when I had written the chapter by hand. Totally useless counting them if you ask me, coz I can let the computer count them any time I want to later on. But she's weird, I am weird, almost everybody I know is weird, so I don't mind) Let's just say I dedicate it to her because some of the characters are in some ways acting like she would.  
  
And for all those who are confused about the conversations Ginny has with her conscious: it would be clearer if you read the 'microsoft word' version I have. There it is written in two different fonts. That just doesn't work at ff.net, I'm sorry. And somehow parts of the text that are written in italics don't appear to be, too. I apologize for that. Damn computer! *tries hard not to kick her computer*  
  
Chapter two: Of a wizarding duel and a travelling mind  
  
  
  
The days passed quickly that week. The daily Quidditch practise, lessons and homework occupied most of Ginny's time. Only in the evenings, when she lay in bed she had time for herself, time for thinking. Thinking of gray eyes, white-blond hair, a sneer and a drawling voice. (the first two things sound a lot more attractive than the last two, but when a girl's in love she would even think the guy was attractive if he had two heads)  
  
She had seen him only at lunchtime that week and was really starting to miss their arguments, although he had always insulted her.  
  
Despite her rather bad mood she had to grin. I would have never thought that I'd ever miss Malfoy! She thought to herself.  
  
Yeah, but then you never think anyway, so I'm not surprised, her conscious replied.  
  
Not you again, I was trying to concentrate on happy thoughts!  
  
You seemed rather blue to me, and I thought you needed a little cheering up!  
  
Well, no thanks, not your way of cheering up!  
  
You don't even know my way of cheering up! Her conscious almost seemed hurt.  
  
Well, I bet it includes a lot of insults and bad language.  
  
Where do you take this knowledge? That is not true!  
  
So what do you plan to do for cheering me up?  
  
Um, you know, everybody has bad times, it's going to be better soon, you know!  
  
You know what? I guess you had better shut up and let me sleep. And never try to be nice again. You are much more agreeable when you're nasty. And with that, she turned around and in theory was going to fall asleep immediately.  
  
In reality she only succeeded to close her eyes. So she sighed and stood up. Suddenly she felt a strange feeling of emptiness in her stomach, as if she hadn't eaten anything all day. And then it dawned to her that she hadn't eaten anything for dinner, because she had been so nervous.  
  
Why on earth had she been so nervous? She sat down on her bed and started to think, which wasn't so easy at one o'clock in the morning. And then she remembered it. It was Saturday! Tomorrow was Sunday! No, it was one am, so it was already Sunday!That meant that today was the Quidditch game against Slytherin! She had to play against Draco! Oh dear, that was going to be like hell.  
  
Suddenly she heard a strange noise. Frightened, she looked around and tried to make out whatever had caused it. There it was again! And then she realized: it was her stomach, reminding her of the lack of nutrition it had suffered lately. So she got up and headed for the kitchen. (Fred and George had shown her how to get there in her second year.)  
  
When she got there she found only a few house-elves that were still up, cleaning the kitchen. She asked them for some food and was given immediately tons and tons of chocolate, butterbeer, pieces of cake, pumpkin juice, sandwiches and much more. She wasn't sure whether she would be able to carry it all, but the house-elves flatly refused to take anything back, so she slowly made her way back.  
  
The dark corridors gave her the creeps, but she had no hand free to draw her wand and illuminate it. There was only very little light coming from a torch hanging in the hallway. But it was quite far away, and it cast shadows that looked so horrible that Ginny wished there was no light at all instead of the constantly flickering dim rays of light that radiated from the torch.  
  
Suddenly she felt something that reminded her of a shoulder smashing into her cheek. A moment later she realized that it was a shoulder. What's a shoulder doing in the corridors? She wondered. It took her another moment to look whether the shoulder maybe belonged to a body. And really – there stood a whole person in front of her. It was… Ginny gasped. She was about to say something when the person shot out a hand and covered her mouth with it. And as if that wasn't enough she felt herself being dragged into the shadows so she got pressed against the wall.  
  
Draco was lying in bed wide awake. He was bored and also a little anxious. He always was before playing against Gryffindor. Please, let me win against that bastard Potter only once! He thought. And if we don't win, Weasley should at least wear a skirt again…-hey, what am I thinking? Did I really think that? Oh dear, I'm going mental!  
  
He sighed. Other people would have said that these thoughts were caused by his nervousness, but Draco couldn't agree with that, because of the simple fact that he was never nervous. He was a bit anxious, okay, but nervous-no. I am NOT nervous. I never am. I never sit around, thinking and hands shaking. Why the *** are my hands shaking? Hey, my hands never shake! MY HANDS NEVER SHAKE! If thoughts could ever sound desperate, his thoughts would have surely sounded very desperate.  
  
For some moments Draco just sat on his bed, staring at his hand unbelievingly. "I can't believe it! My hands are shaking!" he finally murmured to himself.  
  
From somewhere underneath a dozen of blankets he heard Blaise say: "Well, I'm not surprised! You idiot haven't been eating a proper meal for two days now. So just go to the kitchen, get something to eat and bloody hell shut up, you're not the only one here."  
  
Hungry, I am hungry! Oh dear, I am hungry! And I thought I was nervous. Of course I am not! I am just hungry!  
  
That sure is a good thing to know. Usually you feel it when you are hungry, but if you are Draco Malfoy, you have to wait for someone to tell you! And besides, you are not nervous, he? Why didn't you eat by the way?  
  
Draco, who was on his way to the kitchen by now stopped abruptly. Where was that voice coming from?  
  
Inside your head, idiot.  
  
"What, there is someone talking inside my head?"  
  
Yeah, I am called a conscious. Are you always that slow or is it just because it is so late?  
  
"Hey, you don't have to insult me! For that I have people like Potter or those Weasleys, I certainly don't need a voice inside my head doing it too! Where do you come from, anyway? I never had a talking voice inside my head."  
  
Uh, I am, let's say borrowed, because I uh, wanted to, uh have a change, somehow…  
  
"So I have someone else's talking voice in my head. Splendid! Who is it? Not some Mudblood, or worse, a Muggle?"  
  
No, no, I can't travel that far. In fact I didn't even know I could travel until I tried tonight.  
  
"Whose conscious are you? It's not a Hufflepuff, is it?"  
  
No!  
  
"Gryffindor?"  
  
uh…  
  
"Oh dear, you are a Gryffindor's conscious! Who is it? Not Potter, not Potter please. I couldn't stand having a little talking Potter in my head for the rest of my life."  
  
No, I am not Harry Potter's conscious, and I'm certainly not like the person I belong to. Oh dear, imagine being like her…  
  
"Her? I have a female talking voice in my head?"  
  
No, I am neither male nor female.  
  
"It's Weasley, isn't it?"  
  
Where do you know.  
  
"Oh, I just thought of the female Gryffindor I would least want to spend all my time with."  
  
Hey, stop insulting her for a change.  
  
"Why should I? I thought you didn't like her?"  
  
That is my business, and not yours. And I will return to her now.  
  
"Good, because I will certainly enjoy having time for myself again."  
  
Just in the moment when he said that he bumped into a little figure, which stopped abruptly, staring at his shoulder for a few seconds. Only then she took a step back to look at him. It was Ginny Weasley. She opened her mouth and breathed in deeply as if to scream veeeeery loud and veeeeery long.  
  
So he acted without thinking and silenced her by covering her mouth with his hand and drew her into the shadows. "Shhhh." He hissed. "If you scream now, not only I will get detention, but you will too. Now look what you've done! I've got chocolate and butterbeer all over my pajamas. That is chinese silk. These pajamas have probably cost more than your house."  
  
"hmgmbl"  
  
"I beg your pardon?"  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes, closed them and bit into his fingers which caused him to flinch slightly "I said 'put your hand away or I'll bite you'"  
  
He snorted and made a made sure to remember to learn how to understand people who were talking while having their mouth shut. But instead of saying anything he only pressed her into the wall more forcefully, causing her to gasp. "If those pajamas are ruined, you will pay them," he snapped.  
  
She only looked at him starteledly. Oh dear, I guess she's afraid now. If she always only stares when she's afraid I guess this going to be boring. Where's the fun? he thought completely misinterpreting her behavior. When it dawned to him that he was actually standing with Ginny Weasley in a dark corridor, pressing her against a wall with his full body and that she maybe didn't quite know what he intended to do he started to feel slightly uncomfortable.  
  
Okay, what do you do when standing in a dark, deserted corridor like this? Kiss the girl. No, not a good option! So he took one of the many chocolate bars that were sticking out of her pocket and began eating it. Now she was staring at him even more curiously. "Have a bite?" he said, just to say something. He didn't know why, but he didn't want to let go of her.  
  
"Erm" she replied.  
  
"Well, if you don't want it, why did you take it then?" he said.  
  
"I didn't say I didn't want to eat it. I just don't feel like eating something you have already started."  
  
"Why, do you think I am poisonous? It's just my lips. They are certainly not poisonous, see…" he said and then licked his lower lip. Why am I talking and doing such nonsense. Hello, earth to Draco, this is Ginny Weasley.  
  
He looked down on her. Yes, definitely Ginny Weasley, although she looked a bit intimidated. That only makes her look even sweeter than she is anyway.  
  
Following a sudden inspiration which he couldn't explain later he slowly bent down to her face and slowly brushed her lips. When he looked at her again she was eyeing him suspiciously. Following another inspiration he said "Well, am I poisonous now, or not?" he asked grinning –grinning, not smirking – and then turned and walked away.  
  
  
  
Ginny stood in the hallway, watching Draco as he was leaving. She couldn't believe what had just happened. She slowly reached up and touched her lips absentmindedly where Draco had brushed them. I guess I should be angry now  
  
Good guess.  
  
Ginny let herself sink down slowly on the floor and started to think about what had just happened.  
  
He does look strikingly good in his black silk pajamas she thought, sighing. But why had he behaved that ridiculously? Had he been drunk? No, he couldn't have been. Dumbledore had made it impossible for students to get their hands on alcohol. But then, Hagrid had managed to hold a dragon without Dumbledore noticing. Hm, strange...  
  
Slowly she got up again, her lips still feeling rather funny from Draco's touch. Why did he kiss me? That thought kept spinning through her mind. Her silent answers reached from 'Because he likes you' to 'He was drunk' to 'He is just a teenager and his hormones were taking over the control of his body' to 'Because the Dark Lord wants him to get near to one of Harry's friends and Draco had refused to kiss Ron' and so on.  
  
When she reached her dorm, she changed her mind and didn't go to sleep instantly but took a long, hot shower. In the end her feet, her face and her backside had the color of fresh hummer, and she felt slightly lost in the white steam that crowded the whole room. But she was used to it, because she always showered that hot and had learned how to find the door with her eyes closed, which was much easier than trying to get a glimpse of it through the white mist. With the final thought tomorrow is going to be really interesting she left the room and went to bed.  
  
  
  
When Sheila woke her up the next morning Ginny felt like she would die. Not because she was in pain, but because she felt as if someone had drained all her strenght out of her. I really shouldn't stay up that long in the night before a Quidditch match. But that feeling vanished soon when she realized what she had just thought. The match!  
  
Ginny almost jumped out of her bed, got herself dressed in less than a minute, combed her hair and managed to get it into a tight knot at the back of her head, so it wouldn't be in the way during the game.  
  
Then she ran downstairs into the Great Hall, which was almost empty at that time of the day –or better: of the night. Only some Gryffindors and Slytherins were already up: the Quidditch teams. Oh yeah, and Sheila, who always joined them. Ginny wasn't quite sure whether she did that because Sheila slightly fancied their keeper Robin Wainwraith or because she wanted to eat with Ginny.  
  
Ginny slumped into a chair between Sheila and Colin, and because Sheila was enthusiastically talking to Robin she turned to Colin and asked "And, how are you feeling? Nervous?"  
  
He nodded, swallowed some porridge he had just stuffed into his mouth and said, gesturing with his spoon "Yes, I'm almost dying. Those Slytherin Beaters scare the hell out of me!"  
  
Ginny nodded, trying to avoid being hit by Colins spoon. "Yeah," she finally agreed. "You're right. Man, those aren't Beaters, they are flying walls. You should need a licence for letting them play. I wonder if they'd beat up Malfoy if they had a little dispute on tactics. Would be cool!"  
  
She looked at Colin, waiting for him to nod or say anything. Instead he shifted uncomfortably in his chair and stared at a point somewhere behind her left ear.  
  
She raised an eyebrow, silently asking him whether something was wrong. Finally she said "He is standing right behind my chair, isn't he?" And with that she turned around, facing Draco Malfoy, as she had expected.  
  
"You can't have a dispute on tactics with them." He announced stiffly. "They don't even know how to spell neither dispute nor tactics correctly."  
  
Then he turned and was about to walk away, when Ginny whispered, more to herself than to anyone in particular, "Of course they don't, they are Slytherins"  
  
He seemed to have heard that, because he spun around, walked back to her chair, bent down, rested his arms on the back of the chair and hissed silently, so no one save her could hear him, "The fact that I myself am not poisonous does not mean that I don't possess any or wouldn't use it. If I was you I would watch what I'm saying in the future, because else you'll see your Grandma sooner than you would like to, believe me!"  
  
Why should I visit my grandmother? It took Ginny a few moments to notice that Malfoy had just threatened to kill her. She desperately tried to think of something to say except for 'Sorry, my Grandma visited us this summer, you know, she is still alive, murder doesn't occur in our family that often as it does in yours. People actually get old!' but her mind was blank at that moment.  
  
Do something. You can't let him say that! Her conscious cried.  
  
So Ginny grabbed the first thing she was able to get –it was her bowl with porridge- and poured it over Malfoy's head. That was certainly a very childish thing to do, but she couldn't think of anything else. She prepared herself for the embarrassed silence that would most certainly follow, and hoped that everyone would forget the incident soon.  
  
But surprisingly Sheila cried "Yeah, foodfight!" and shot a spoon of porridge at Colin, who took his roll and threw it at Harry, who was just pouring his pumpkin juice over Persephone's head.  
  
Soon the whole Gryffindor team was throwing around food happily, and no one watched the retreating figure of Draco Malfoy, frowning darkly at Ginny, while trying to get the porridge out of his hair.  
  
Ten minutes later, when the girls had finally gotten the boys to give up, Ginny was surprised how much havoc eight people could wreak. The Great hall looked like a battlefield, chairs, tables, and dishes being covered by various food, and pumpkin juice running in little streams from the edges of the tables.  
  
When everybody saw what they had done, the uncomfortable silence Ginny had expected earlier came.  
  
"Erm…" Harry cleared his throat. "The table…is a mess," he observed.  
  
"How did you see that? I think it looks rather nice. They call that modern art, you know" she said dryly.  
  
"Uh, d'you guess guess we should clean up?" Colin asked, clearly showing that he wasn't too enthusiastic about the thought.  
  
"What do you think we should do? Of course we will clean up! Ginny and Sheila, you to clean the chairs, me and Colin will do the …"  
  
After a quarter of an hour they were finished. The table and the seats were clean and the food was back where it belonged. Ginny stood at the end of the table, looking pleased. They had done a good job.  
  
"Man, I'm happy we didn't have to do it the Muggle way!" Colin sighed, collapsing into a chair.  
  
"You better get up and clean yourself too. You know, your hair looks very delicious, but I think everybody will be grateful if they don't have to wipe little pieces of porridge out of their face every time you fly past them," Ginny announced and left the Hall, the rest of the team at her heels.  
  
  
  
Draco had watched the whole thing with disgust. That was so childish. He had difficulties concentrating on his breakfast, while those Gryffindors had their breakfast in their faces, hair, on their clothes and maybe under their fingernails –that thought gave Draco the creeps.  
  
And when they had started to clean up he couldn't resist snorting out loudly. Typically Gryffindor he thought, feeling superior. A Slytherin would have let that to the house-elves.  
  
When they were done the Weasley girl even looked pleased. If he had cleaned a table for others he would back away from himself in disgust, well, if it was possible to back away from oneself he would, at least. But then, Weasley would have to that kind of work for the rest of her life, so it couldn't hurt practising a little, could it?  
  
  
  
An hour later the whole school was in the stands of the Quidditch pitch. The Gryffindor team sat nervously in the changing room, everybody pale, watching the time as it crept forward without haste. The seconds passed so slowly that each of them seemed like an hour to Ginny.  
  
She had wanted this game to come. She had longed for it, like she longed for Malfoy to kiss her again. But now she wasn't sure whether she was able to play. I am a good player, so why am I so afraid of that match? We will win, we almost always do.  
  
I wouldn't rely on the past too much if I were you.  
  
Hey, leave me alone. Just be quiet, just like you were before I ran into Malfoy last night!  
  
Well, since you mention it, I made a little trip into his mind yesterday.  
  
You did what?  
  
Well, visited him, talked to him.  
  
You didn't tell him you were my conscious, did you?  
  
Well…  
  
Oh my god, are you crazy?  
  
Well since you are I have to be, too. And besides, I got a most interesting view on his thoughts. You know what? He thinks that your legs are sexy and he secretly hopes that you will play in a skirt again today.  
  
Okay, now I know that you're lying. He wouldn't have told you that.  
  
He didn't tell me. I saw it. I looked for the things going on in his mind that he wanted least that others would find out. And the thing with your legs was one of those things. The others were a pair of glowing boxers that he wasn't able to turn back to normal, the fact that he absolutely despises his family, at least his father, and…  
  
Okay, I don't want to hear more.  
  
Ha, that is so unfair. You never let me finish my sentences. You know if there was a committee for misuse of the conscious I would go and…  
  
-cut it out! Be quiet!  
  
I…  
  
No!  
  
Okay.  
  
Five minutes later the team stepped out onto the pitch nervously, knees trembling, while Carmencita Bell, who was commentating annouced their names, Harry, Ginny and for some odd reason Colin received the loudest cheers. Ginny couln't explain to herself that someone would cheer at Colin that overentusiastically. Not that he wasn't a bad player, but he was usually regarded as a little slow with his mind.  
  
Out there the team captains had to shake hands. Ginny saw Draco saying something while casting Harry and amused look. Then they both walked back to their teams, Harry not looking all too pleased.  
  
Good luck, and don't break your neck! Remember that I'll be dead then too. You don't want to end up in hell for murdering me?  
  
I don't believe that hell could be worse than you.  
  
Hey I know that …  
  
"OFF!" Madam Hoochs voice cut into the beginning speech of Ginny's conscious. Everybody kicked off the ground and Ginny was in posession of the Quaffle. She passed it to Coling, then sped away towards the goalposts. Colin threw the Quaffle in her direction, and she scored. Carmencita Bell, who was commentating cheered out loudly and Ginny saw Harry and Colin doing some loop-de-loops.  
  
The game continued. Ginny's heart raced, and everytime she passed Draco it felt like it would burst. But somehow she managed to concentrate on the match.  
  
Persephone Johnson was now trying to pass the Quaffle to Colin, because the Slytherin Beaters kept aiming the Bludgers at her. Ginny threw and caught the Quaffle, she flew and stopped, but the whole situation seemed very unreal to her. She didn't hear much of the noise around her. It all seemed as if she was watching the whole thing, seeing herself playing and scoring again.  
  
She only heard her own breath, heartbeat and Carmencitas voice crying out loudly: "Weasley – Johnson – oh, no! How could that happen? The Slytherins caught the Quaffle. O'Cure is now in posession of it, and …- WATCH OUT ROBIN! Damn it, too late, Slytherin scores. 110 to 90 points for Gryffindor!"  
  
Ginny smiled, catching the Quaffle out of the air and passing it to Perth, as how they called Persephone. That was typical for Carmencita. She always tried to warn the Gryffindor Keeper if a Slytherin Chaser was approaching him, and McGonagall constantly warned her that she would be sent off the pitch if she ever did that again. But she never kept word, and Carmencita always stayed until the end of the game.  
  
Suddenly the crowd was aaahing and ooohing, and Carmencita exclaimed: "Now would you look at that? It seems like Harry has seen the Snitch, and now he's heading to get it, Malfoy at his heels." Everybody tried to watch Harry and Draco, except for Ginny.  
  
She couldn't understand why everybody froze in midair just to watch them. If anyone got the Snitch they would surely notice because of the cheering or screaming crowd, and if not –which happened far more often- it would take a while to get the game going again.  
  
Ginny had the Quaffle in her hands and was just heading for the goalposts when she saw Harry crossing her way, diving down rapidly missing her only by a few centimeters. Draco however was not so lucky. When Ginny stopped in shock because she and Harry had nearly collided he managed to come to a halt only one second before he crashed into her.  
  
Before anyony could say anything, the crowd cheered, and when Ginny looked down she saw Harry holding up the Snitch. "AND GRYFFINDOR WINS! HARRY POTTER CAUGHT THE SNITCH; WHOOO – HOOO! GRYFFINDOR RULES, YEAH!" Carmencita shouted at the top of her lungs.  
  
Ginny started shouting and cheering too, but was interrupted by a veeeeery angry Draco Malfoy. "Now look at that!" he spat "Which idiot said that Gryffindors are brave and don't cheat? But then, your team plays so lousy that you wouldn't have a chance to win in another way. But I am soooo sorry to tell you that there will be a rematch." With that he turned around and descended slowly, joining his team.  
  
After he was gone, Ginny exhaled loudly with relief. She had expected him to kill her, or at least try it. He had acted in a very unmalfoyish way. But the way he had spoken and looked seemed even more dangerous than a very long, sharp knife, at least in that moment. Ginny shrugged and tried not to think of how he would take revenge on her, of which she was sure that he would. He was acting slightly weird lately, but he nevertheless was Draco Malfoy!  
  
Late in the evening the Gryffindors were still celebrating in their common room, drinking butterbeer and telling Ginny that she needn't have blocked Malfoy, but that it was still a cool move because he was sooooooooooo pissed off afterwards. Nobody would listen to her when she told them that she had done it unintentionally.  
  
Finally all the cheering and noise were too much for her and she left the common room, heading for the lake to have some peace for a couple of minutes. When she arrived there, she saw the silhouette of a person leaning against a tree, but since it was already dark she couldn't see who it was.  
  
So she approached the dark figure, curious who was out there at that time of the night. When she saw it, her heart jumped and then fell down into the depths of her legs, or even deeper. It was Draco! (A/N: Surprise, surprise! I know that she constantly runs into Draco, and it's a clichée, but I can't help it. It isn't that she doesn't run into other persons too, I just don't write about it!)  
  
She thought that she had been very quiet, but somehow he must have heard her because he spun around wildly, grabbed her shoulder and pressed her against the tree heavily. "What are you doing here?" he asked through gritted teeth unable to control his breath, which was going rapidly with anger.  
  
Uh oh, he doesn't look too pleased to see you…  
  
"Go back and celebrate with your idiot friends but leave this place immediately, or I'll positively kill you!"  
  
"Uh, actually I would really like to go, but you are still pressing me against that tree" she said rather quietly.  
  
He looked at her for a moment but didn't loosen his grip on her shoulder. "I've changed my mind. I think I won't let you go, instead I will tear your head off and eat my breakfast out of the skull tomorrow. I won't even have to get the brain out, since you obviously lack one." He remarked.  
  
Ginny squirmed and resolved not to scream out "Yech!" because she pictured him eating his porridge out of her skull. But she was so busy with not trying to think of it that she didn't notice the mischieveous grin that spread over his face slowly.  
  
"No, I have and even better idea!" he announced "I think just killing you wouldn't be much of a pastime. I guess it would be much more amusing if you tried to defend yourself for a while. How about a wizarding duel? Tomorrow night. No secundants. In the forbidden forest. What do you think?" She stared at him. He couldn't possibly mean what he was saying, could he?  
  
When she didn't respond, he asked "What, are you afraid?"  
  
"No, but you are. I hear you pissed your pants in your first year and ran away screaming?"  
  
"That was then and now is now. You may still have your old habits like sleeping with a teddy in your arms, but I don't. So you are afraid. Well, what else is to be expected from a girl?"  
  
Ginny felt the blood rush through her veins and her face reddening with anger. "Girl? I am NOT scared of a little bastard like you. Of course I will come. Meet you at Hagrid's hut tomorrow, at midnight. And don't forget to bring a coffin in your size!" With that she pushed him away and walked back to her dorm.  
  
Now why did I do that? I know that he knows a lot of dark magic, and I know as much as a bunch of hey. I need help. I guess I have to ask Sheila. But not today. Now I'm tired, and definitely not in the mood for one of her 'Why did you do that?'-speeches.  
  
So she didn't tell Sheila of what had happened and went to bed, sinking into a light sleep, having several nightmares, each of them featuring steel- gray eyes, a dark creepy forest and lots of dark magic. Every time she woke up she was soaked with sweat, and finally gave up sleep at 3:30 am. Instead she started to do her potions homework, which was pretty much the same as having a nightmare. After an hour of working (10%) and yawning (90%) she fell asleep again, this time not dreaming anything.  
  
  
  
After Ginny had gone Draco sunk down on the ground, leaning against the tree. Damn! He thought, mentally slapping himself. He had managed not to kill her on the pitch and had gone away as quickly as possible because he had thought that a rematch would be out of question if he harmed her. But Madam Hooch had said that things like this could happen, and that Ginny had blocked him without purpose. Idiotic woman!  
  
Then his thoughts began to drift into the same direction as Ginny's, although he didn't know it. Why did he do that? Why had he proposed a duel? No, that is not the question. Why in the Forbidden Forest? It might have scared her, but it scares me too. He still was afraid of the Forbidden Forest, but not as much as he had been in his first year.  
  
That is all because I let my anger take control of me again! He thought, angry at himself. Of course I have a right to be angry at her. That was the last match against Gryffindor I will ever take part in. And she spoiled it! She spoiled my last chance to beat Potter! IT IS NOT FAIR! He picked up a stone and threw it into the lake, hoping that he'd hit one of those many creatures living in there.  
  
He sat there for quite a long time, eventually throwing a stone into the lake. Finally, he got up and went to bed, but he couldn't sleep because it was so bright in his dorm. Why the *** is it that bright in here? It's the middle of the night, and I turned off all the lights! He thought curiously. But there was a flourescent light coming from somewhere in his bed. From his bed! Draco flung away the covers and groaned. Oh dear! He was wearing the glowing boxershorts.  
  
Okay, enough is enough! He thought, swallowing his pride, put on another pair of boxershorts and stormed out of his dorm. He ran through the dungeon corridors, and came to a halt in front of a door. As embarassing as this is going to be, but I think I'll have to ask Snape for help!  
  
Taking in breath sharply, he knocked at the door. After a minute or so he heard someone slowly approaching the door. When it opened he felt his heart sink. A minute ago he had been quite sure that he could do it, but now…  
  
…it was too late anyway. Snape was standing in the doorway eyeing him curiously. Draco sighed thinking that he was too tired to explain the whole thing, so he just hold up the boxershorts and asked "Could you turn them back, professor?"  
  
Snape cocked an eyebrow, and it occurred to Draco that it might have been wise to wash the underwear before he'd give it to Snape.  
  
"Turn them back? So this is not their original shape?" Snape said mockingly.  
  
Draco rolled his eyes, completely forgetting to whom he was talking. "Of course not! That damned Weasley girl jinxed them. I CAN'T TURN THEM BACK! Those originally were black silk! She messed up my Giorgino boxershorts!" Now his voice was positively sounding desperate.  
  
Snape had to fight back a grin. He knew Draco's foible for designer clothes, and 'Giorgino' was the most expensive and exquisite wizard-wear label.  
  
"What a terrible sin!" He finally said. "I warn you Draco, not every problem can be solved with murder!"  
  
Draco glared at him. "I came to you for help and not for mockery, professor. If you don't know how to turn them back, just say it."  
  
As Draco was his favorite pupil Snape didn't mind him speaking in that tone with him.  
  
"Maybe a Luminous charm," he said after thinking for a while.  
  
Draco shrugged. "Don't know. I didn't ask her"  
  
"That much was obvious! A Luminous charm belongs to the group of Repeturus- charms. You just have to repeat the charm, and it is reversed. Finite incantatem won't work Luminou" he said, and the boxers immediately stopped glowing and the turned back into a deep black.  
  
"Erm, thank you Professor" Draco said, turned around and went away.God, that was embarassing! Not only that I had to ask for help, but that I could have figured it out easily myself!  
  
  
  
Slowly he trotted back to his dorm, let himself sink down on his bed, throwing the boxers into a corner of the room.  
  
That night he didn't sleep well. He had terrible nightmares about the Forbidden Forest, and if he would have known that Ginny suffered because of them, too that night he would have been even more embarrassed than he was anyway. Draco Malfoy having nightmares! Potter would surely like to know that.  
  
When he woke up the next morning he had banned the things that had happened the previous night out of his mind. At least the thing with the boxershorts. He was very grateful that Snape didn't mention anything about it at breakfast, but Draco strongly suspected that he had talked to Professor Flitwick, because the tiny professor announced in Charms that they would spend the next few lessons studying Repeturus charms.  
  
Draco glared at him while Flitwick cheerfully handed everybody some hexed objects because they had to discover which Repeturus charm lasted on that object and de-hex it.  
  
"They are all very easy charms, and I am certain that you will be able to have your work done in less than thirty minutes, starting from now!"  
  
After an hour even Crabbe and Goyle had figured out how to do it and the professor looked at their work closely. "Well done Mister Malfoy. Yours was rather difficult in comparison with the others. Yes, yes Atypicus spell…" he murmured when he examined Draco's box.  
  
"Was it?" he asked, just to show he was listening.  
  
"Yes, but surely you must have known, otherwise you couldn't have…"  
  
"I need to know?" Draco asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Actually I didn't know that it was an Atypicus spell or however it is called. I just tried Finite Incantatem, and it worked!"  
  
Now Professor Flitwick was looking rather dumbstruck. "But, how…?" he said, shaking his head. "I must have put the wrong spell on it…" he murmured while walking back to his desk.  
  
The rest of the lesson was rather uneventful and boring, and Draco was glad when it finally ended. He packed his books and left the classroom for lunch.  
  
When he settled down in a chair in the great hall he had the strange feeling that somebody was staring at him, he looked up and saw that Ginny was glaring at him from the Gryffindor table.  
  
Pansy Parkinson who was sitting next to Draco and had noticed Ginny's glare too, said "Dear, if looks could kill…"  
  
"You would probably sink down dead now, with her having the typical Gryffindor aiming skills" Draco finished her sentence. "If I were you I'd stay away from me for a little while" he added, "it could be rather dangerous, you know."  
  
  
  
He's a ***  
  
Yes, but a really cute ***  
  
Doesn't matter!  
  
Does matter!  
  
Does not!  
  
Oh yes it does!  
  
No, see how he's flirting with Pansy?  
  
Ginny girl, can't you see? He's not flirting with her!  
  
He is. Flirting with PANSY PARKINSON, oh dear, he has really bad taste  
  
No, he would have bad taste if he would flirt with you!  
  
Pansy Parkinson, I don't believe it! Pansy Parkinson! I mean, that name! Sounds like she was a big pink frilly thing that can't control the movements of it's arms!  
  
Why can't it control the movements of it's arms?  
  
Parkinson!  
  
Whats that?  
  
A disease. People who suffer of parkinson shake uncontrollably and make uncoordinated movements!  
  
Oh, I didn't know that  
  
Really? I guess I will celebrate this day until the end of my life. It will be called: "The 'Ginny's Conscious didn't know something'-day"  
  
Or the "Draco flirted with Pansy during lunch-day"  
  
I thought you said they didn't flirt?  
  
I just changed my mind  
  
You know what? You are very childish!  
  
So are you!  
  
I guess we'd rather bring this conversation to an end!  
  
Yes, I think that'd be better too!  
  
Mhm…  
  
  
  
After lunch Draco slept through the whole divination class and asked himself later how he'd managed to do that, with that nasty smell the room had. Then he had Herbology and had to pull out a lot of plants he didn't remember the names of. He was very glad when lessons were over because Monday was always very dull.  
  
Hey, I will have enough excitement tonight, so I should be grateful for every dull thing that happens now! He thought, remembering the wizarding duel. He also wondered whether he should look up some hexes but then decided not to, because he knew enough to fight five Ginnys.  
  
So he spent the rest of the day reading some very boring book Pansy had given to him. In fact he didn't read it, he just looked at it and occasionally turned a page, his mind elsewhere, but nowhere in particular. He thought that Pansy might have taken a liking on him because she constantly followed him (very bad for bad-tempered people!), gave him books (even worse for people like Drao) whose plot was always the same (uh-oh) fluffy love-story (alert, alert) that ended either with marriage (keep your heads down, or else it might get really uncomfortable) or a broken heart and suicide (Huh, relax guys, it's safe again!).  
  
And she kept telling him that she thought glowing boxershorts were incredibly sexy (RUUUUUN! Run for your life… oh no, too late)  
  
He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the sun going down, and the moon rising. Finally, when he put the book aside it was 11 pm. [he was on page 52, and he had thought of: Pansy (bad) forbidden forest (very bad) Ginny (can't decide whether that is good or bad) hitting Ginny with the Cruciatus Curse (very good indeed) glowing boxershorts (erm, not that good…) getting the chance to get back at Ginny (better) chocolate (heaven) and much more]  
  
When he finally realized that he had only one hour left until he had to go into the Forbidden Forest again he felt his stomach drop. That was certainly not going to be as much fun as he'd told Ginny that it'd be…  
  
  
  
Ginny turned in her bed restlessly. She hadn't told Sheila yet, because she'd feared that Sheila'd intervene. But she didn't want her to. Firstly because it dangerous, and secondly because Malfoy would have something new to tease her with. And she certainly didn't need that!  
  
When it was half past eleven she got up and decided just to leave a note for Sheila, in case anything happened. She hastily scribbled a few words on a piece of parchment and put it on her bed.  
  
Then she put on her cloak, grabbed her wand and left the Gryffindor Tower, praying that there was nobody sitting in the common room. But luck had decided to be on her side this time, and she reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest incidentlessly.  
  
She had to wait for Draco for some time, and when he finally came it was a quarter past twelve.  
  
"You're late" she remarked "Elsewhere that is considered as lady-like, but with me that isn't so."  
  
Draco snorted.  
  
If you want to say he's feminine with that, then you'd be a lesb!  
  
"Shut up!" Ginny had again forgotten just to think that sentence.  
  
"I didn't say anything, may I ask why you always talk so rude to me?"  
  
"Actually I wasn't talking to you, but I guess you would have said something very nasty soon, so I didn't say it to someone innocent!"  
  
He cocked an eyebrow.  
  
"Let's go," Ginny said, because she wanted to have it behind her as soon as possible.  
  
"Okay!" Draco said, turning towards a path that led into the forest.  
  
Ginny followed him hesitantly, because that was her first time in the dark, creepy forest. The branches of the trees hang deep, and she brushed them from time to time. Everytime she stepped onto the path it made a crunching noise, as if she'd walk on some corn flakes or popcorn. With every step she took the forest got darker and darker, and soon there was hardly any light left.  
  
There were strange noises coming from everywhere around her, and each time one of them was a bit louder than the others she had the feeling that somebody or something would jump on the path and attack them. She just hoped that it'd fight Draco first, so she may have the time to run away.  
  
You are such a coward! The voice in her head piped up.  
  
Afraid of every… what was that?  
  
An owl.  
  
No it wasn't.  
  
Yes it was  
  
No, owls do "shoo-hoo" or something like that.  
  
It was an owl rustling in the branches of a tree, okay? That voice had the terrible attribute that it always scared her to death, and Ginny said these things more to convince herself that it had been an owl than her conscious, which seemed to be a little afraid too by now.  
  
It was not an owl rustling in the branches of a tree, because the noise came from the ground, and it sounded as if it had more than two legs…  
  
What do you mean? Are there any wolves in here?  
  
Don't know, but it sounded as if it had more than four feet too!  
  
Suddenly they stepped out onto a clearing, which was dimly lit by the crescent moon, that was partly covered by little clouds. It gave enough light to look at their surroundings now. The trees were very high in this part of the forest, and the ground was covered in something misty and white. Ginny couldn't make out what it was, but she was somehow happy not to know.  
  
"Erm, why did it have to be in the Forbidden Forest?" she asked, not being able to stop herself. But he would have noticed how scared she was because she was so pale. She hadn't seen herself, but she just knew she had to be as pale as a ghost.  
  
"Because we don't want anybody to notice. Or would you like Professor Dubledore discovering us having a wizarding duel and giving us detention until Doomsday?" answered after giving her a look of such self confidence that she thought that the Forest wasn't the only creepy thing around.  
  
"Ah, yes, and I am sure you know exactly where we are?"  
  
"Yes, can we begin now?" he asked unpatiently.  
  
So he is afraid! She thought. She just wanted to answer, when she saw that the path they had used started to move. How was that possible? She cast a glance at Draco, who was staring unbelievingly at the path too.  
  
It made it's way straight towards the middle of the clearing, but after it had moved some feet it parted into to smaller paths, one moving towards Draco, the other one towards Ginny. When it came nearer, Ginny noticed that it wasn't a path, but that there were millions of spiders approaching her.  
  
She let out a shriek, jumped, and ran towards Draco, clutching his arm, totally forgetting who he was, or maybe absolutely not forgetting who he was.  
  
"Let go of my arm, Weasel, those are just spiders. Tiny, weak spiders, get off!"  
  
Just in the moment when he'd said that other spiders came crawling out of the undergrowth. They were not all as small as the path-spiders, and finally a huge spider stepped into the clearing.  
  
It was at least seven feet tall, there was saliva dropping out of its mouth, and it's eyes were white, as if it were blind.  
  
Then the animal opened it's mouth as it it was going to speak. Ginny imagined that it said something. Something that sounded like 'bind them', but that was impossible.  
  
But suddenly one of the larger spiders shot out a string of the white material that covered the ground, and it hit Ginny and Draco at their arms and wound around their wrists, so they were tied together, because Ginny still hadn't let go of Draco's arm.  
  
She tried to free herself, and so did Draco, but they were bound very tightly, and neither of them thought of drawing their wands and magically unfastening their bindings.  
  
Now the spiders slowly advanced towards them, and Ginny felt Draco stiffen beside her. She looked around and saw that the spiders were coming from nearly every direction, there was just one spot at the edge of the clearing that was comletely spider-free.  
  
"Turn around" she hissed silently "There's a spot where there are no spiders, see? We'll run there, at three, okay?"  
  
"Yes"  
  
"Good. One… two…" she faced the spiders again, of whom the first ones were now only a few feet away. She didn't know why, but they seemed to be hesitating to attack them, of which Ginny was sure they would do sooner or later.  
  
"Three" they both spun around which caused them some problems because they turned in different directions which made their arms hang at a very strange angle. Then they ran towards the edge of the clearing, and meanwhile tried to get their arms into a normal angle again.  
  
When they had managed to do that they just ran into the forest, not looking where they were going. They seemed to be able to run forever without getting exhausted, but Ginny knew that wouldn't last for long. She vaguely remembered her father telling her something about the FFS, the Fight-and- Flight-Syndrome, which gave you strength in extremely dangerous situation, an which had caused the people ten thousands of years ago to climb a tree at high speed when a bear was approaching or so.  
  
After about a quarter of an hour of running through the forest Ginny suddenly felt her legs again. Not that she hadn't felt that she had legs before, but now she felt them, which meant that they began to hurt, and the soles of her feet began to sting.  
  
So she just let herself sink down on the ground breathing hard with exhaustion, while Draco ran on, and considering that they were tied together and he was running at very high speed Ginny wondered that he didn't simply rip off her arm and ran on. Instead he stumbled and fell back, directly on top of her.  
  
"What do you think you are doing?" he shouted and started swearing.  
  
"My feet hurt." Ginny complained. "And my legs, I think they …" she broke off.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Listen!" she said, her voice trembling.  
  
"I can't hear anything, what do you mean?" he asked.  
  
Ginny pulled him off her and said "That's it. I can't hear anything either. Do you know where we are?"  
  
"Yes, we ran away from that clearing…no I don't"  
  
"You know what? We are lost, and we are alone."  
  
There they sat, hands bound together, in the darkness, not knowing where they were, not knowing what to do, not knowing anything.  
  
"We are alone…" Ginny repeated, staring into where she believed would be the sky, if the trees hadn't blocked her vision.  
  
  
  
  
  
That was it for this chapter, next will include two(!) portkeys and the revival of someone very nasty! But only if I get some reviews.  
  
Ahem, yes, reviews. I wrote that with the last chapter too, and I wanted to thank those who reviewed. But I accidentally deleted them, so I don't know who reviewed this story. So I'll just have to thank Shadow Child and Silver, who is also my beta-reader.  
  
And, do you see that nice little button there, saying "submit review"? would you mind clicking on it? Pleeeeeaaaase, pleeeaaaasee, I also accept negative criticism, as long as it's constructive. 


	3. Of Gingerbread Doors And Shortbread Wall...

MUCH ADO ABOUT DRACO (3/?)

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Grindelwald is mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone, but I formed his character, Jean-Pierre belongs to Dazma and Domenica Scarlatti to Silver. (Thanks guys!)

Sheila Wood, Perth Johnson, Carmencita Bell and Robin Wainwright who appear in other chapters are mine!

When Grindelwald performs the Exitus Incantation (mine!) he begins with Lords of Grimm. The Grimm brothers used to live somewhere back in the Germany of the18th century I think, but I'm not entirely sure. They collected fairy tales and printed them. Their stories are widely known in countries where German is spoken.

And Herbert Groenemayer really exists. And he really is a horrible German singer. (At least in my opinion, and-I'd like to add- in the opinion of most of Germany's and Austria's inhabitants. I reckon people buy his songs because the think _'now let's see what kind of crap the old fella produced now')_

Takes place in Ginny's 6th year, will later include some D/G and (only peripheral) some H/Cho. If you want to know the plot, you'll just have to read.

**Author's Note:** I dedicate this chapter again to my loooovely beta-readers Silver and silvipotter (I wouldn't know what to do without them, honestly) and to, hm, Metallica and Nirvana.  Was listening to their songs the whole time while I was writing this chapter. Kind of gave me inspiration.

Chapter 3: Of Gingerbread doors and Shortbread walls

"We are alone…" Ginny repeated, staring to where she believed the sky would be the sky if the trees hadn't blocked her vision.

Draco sighed. "You know, we're not at the theatre, Weasley" he said. "You don't have to try to be dramatical."

"What do you suggest I should say? That I am sitting alone in a dark, creepy forest which is inhabited by monster-spiders, werewolves, Draco Malfoy and other figures you can find in a Muggle theme park?" she replied testily.

Draco cast her a glance that would have caused the ocean to retreat from the beach, but as it was too dark to see anything Ginny didn't notice it. 

"You know, I don't think that we will get out of here by mere sitting around" Draco pointed out.

"No, we certainly won't. I've been thinking. You want to know what I think?"

"No, I don't. Sentences like 'If Harry Potter was you now, he would take me in his arms and…' -ugh, see, what I mean, these things usually cause me to vomit!"

"Why should I think of Harry sitting beside me now? Not that I enjoyed your presence, but he threatened to kill anyone who tried to spoil his date with Cho tonight. In that case I don't want to be that 'anyone', so I have to put up with you."

"Notice that I am near killing you now, too."

"I don't want to destroy your dreams, but may I ask how? You've only got your left hand for use. That could turn out to be a problem!"

Instead of an answer Draco drew his wand and murmured softly "_Avada Kedavra's a nice little spell, you know" He heard her gasp with shock beside him. "But then I guess it would be better if I´d just gotten rid of that…what's that anyway?" _

Ginny also drew her wand and muttered _"Lumos" They both looked at the white rope-like thing that was binding them tightly. _

Draco carefully poked his wand at it, and the white stuff began to fume soundlessly and finally started to melt, turning green and brown eventually.

"Ew, it looks like it's molding," Ginny said with disgust "Put your wand away immediately…"

"Would you please stop complaining? You should be glad that monster didn't eat you!"

"Well, but look at this! I hate mould! Maybe I would have preferred being eaten by it!"

"Are you crazy? That thing would have drooled all over my Jean-Pierre sweater!"

"How horrible. I guess that would have been the last action in it's life. I just don't know whether I would have stopped you chopping it's body into pieces with your bare hands and then throwing them into every imaginable direction."

"Haha, very funny! This sweater is maybe as expensive as all your clothes _together!"_

"Then why don't you just wear normal stuff? It looks the same and is a lot cheaper."

"Looks the same? You think a Jean-Pierre sweater or Domenica Scarlatti pants or Giorgino boxershorts look the same as other clothes?"

"Okay, the boxershorts might look different sometimes. But, although I have to admit that I have no sense for fashion, I believe that bright green is not in at the moment."

"I don't possess any bright green boxershorts..."

"…if it hadn't been for Snape."

Draco felt his cheeks go pink. _How does she know? _

Ginny looked at him with interest. She had never seen Draco blush. Well, he hadn't really blushed, but he went slightly pink. She cast him an amused smile and cocked an eyebrow mockingly.

By then they had gotten their hands free again. Draco looked at Ginny as if to ask her what she intended to do now, but she didn't notice it because she was staring at the sky, lost in thought.

But all of a sudden she turned to him and said: "You know what I think?"

"You already asked me that five minutes ago."

"Really. Well, I think that we should go into the direction we came from."

"Sure. Firstly I don't know which direction we actually came from as everything around here  looks pretty much the same to me and secondly I don't think it would be a good idea to pay those nice little spiders another visit." Draco said sarcastically.

"But didn't you think it was strange that those spiders avoided this way? It almost seemed as if they were afraid of it. You have seen them. Would you like to see something even _they are afraid of?"_

"Nonsense. They weren't afraid of anything. We'll go right into…" he looked around and finally pointed towards their left "…this direction"

"And why do _we do that? I'm going alone because then the danger of being murdered by the third-nastiest thing in this forest would be banned." Ginny said firmly, while getting up and turning towards their right._

"You will go nowhere alone."

"Why? Are you afraid?"

"No, but I don't want Dumbledore to kill me if I get back to Hogwarts and tell him that you are still running around in that forest or maybe just being digested by a big, ugly, hairy,…"

"Spider with a serious lack of fashion sense. Okay, I'll go with you, but only because I don't want to tell Hagrid that there was this poor blind spider suffering of a bad stomach upset because it had eaten some indigestible student. Hagrid would kill me for the poor animal's sake."

"Okay, we'll take this way," Draco pointed to their left.

"Oh no, we take that way," Ginny started to their right.

"Left way."

"Right way."

"Left way."

"Right way."

"Left way, basta, finito."

"Right way."

"Left way. See that plant there? It's called morphelia bride and it's a bad omen. Anyone who takes a way where morphelia brides grow will die the terrible death of…erm I guess it was drowning, wasn't it?"

Ginny cocked an eyebrow. "Drowning? Here, in the forest? Oh my, you are a great diviner. I guess if I´d let you read my future out of a teacup you will tell me that I will die of cancer of the prostate? Oh, and besides, that plant you were talking about, it was a forget-me-not."

"Oh, erm, sure I…I knew that…"

"Sure," Ginny drawled. 

"We'll take the left way."

"Oh-_kay. Stop being so childish"_

"I'm not childish, I just know that we have to take that way."

Ginny resigned and slowly followed Draco, who had already turned around and had gone. "Boys!" she sighed, while shaking her head and rolling her eyes. 

After half an hour of walking the forest got creepier and creepier with every step they took. There were hardly any animals and the only existing noise was caused by their feet. _I knew it. We should have taken the right way, but no, your Childishness thought it was better to take the left one, Ginny mused._

A few kilometres of walking quietly side by side later, they reached another clearing. There was some sort of altar standing in its middle and on its surface there was a candle that had immediately lit up the moment they had stepped onto the clearing. The altar seemed to be carved out of a single block of marble, and it showed some people who were haunted by demons on its sides. They were apparently screaming and trying to run away, but there was nowhere to go.

"Creepy," Ginny muttered, slowly advancing the altar. "What is that?"

 When she finally reached it she noticed that the candle wasn't the only thing lying on it. There was also a rather old book that lay open on the left and a knife with an ivory handle with another demon carved on it.

"Seems to be a sacrificial altar, if you ask me" Draco, who was standing beside her, said. He cautiously reached for the book and drew it closer to him as not to break it, because it seemed rather old. He examined the page the book was opened on. 

"Thou takest the knife with thy left hand and reachest for the bowl, placed at thy right with thy other hand. The others, standing in a circle around thee will call thy name, thrice, and then thou cuttest thy thumb and let the blood run down into the bowl, where it is mixed with the…"

"Okay, stop it. I don't want to hear it. How weird do you have to be to write such stuff, or actually even do it. I mean look at that knife. I bet you would get tetanus if you really cut your finger with it" She picked up the knife and looked at it closely.

Draco put a hand on her arm and was just about to tell her to put that down, when he felt a strange feeling in his stomach, and the forest around them began to blur. Then they were lifted into the air by something as if they were feathers and the scenery seemed to spin around them, until it came to a halt all of a sudden.

Draco, who had been clutching Ginny's arm for the couple of seconds that had passed, hit the ground hard and knocked her over, falling on top of her. Suddenly he felt a searing pain in his left hand and inhaled sharply, rolling over so he was lying beside Ginny. 

He pressed his right hand on his left and felt something warm and wet running down his arm. Ginny's wand about three feet away, but it was still bright enough for him to see that he was bleeding. She must have cut him with the knife when they were falling.

"Dammit," Draco swore, watching the blood running down his arm in little streams. 

"Weasley?"

"Huh?" 

"Did you do that intentionally?"

"What?"

"How about you turn around and look at my hand?"

Ginny, who hadn't moved until now slowly turned her head and looked at Draco's hand. 

"Ew, how did you do that?"

"I didn't do that. You cut me with that damned knife. By the way, d'you reckon that was some sort of levitation charm?"

"Levitation Charm?" Ginny snickered contemptuously. "Not a Levitation Charm. Look around you fool, it was a Portkey!" 

Draco, who had previously been too occupied with his bleeding hand hadn't noticed that their surroundings had changed. In fact they hadn't changed much, they were still in some sort of clearing, but instead of the altar there was a huge statue standing in the middle and in front of it there was a tablet with some strangely familiar letters on it.

When Draco recognised what they were he groaned. They were runes. Draco didn't have many subjects at school he wasn't good in, in fact there were only three: Divination, Herbology and Rune Studies, although his bad marks in the first two subjects were caused by a strong lack of interest and dislike for plants and strangely odored rooms. 

"Show me your hand" Ginny demanded, interrupting his fit of self-pity. 

"You good at Healing Magic?"

"Erm…well, not as good as others maybe…but…I guess I'm better than you are. C'mon, give me your hand"

"I've heard rumours about you from some 6th year Slytherins. I do hope they are not true."

"I'm afraid they are, although I don't know what they say. But I can give it a try." 

With that she took his hand and looked at it for some time. "I guess _Asclepio will do in this case. Although I have to get rid of the blood somehow…"_

Draco, who had heard enough about her healing qualities paled as she said that. He thought her capable of getting rid of _all his blood, not only the little part of it that was covering his arm._

"Hey, I'm not that bad. I guess I can fix it, things like that are rather easy. Please?"

"Okay, but if you kill me I will kill you…oh, well, in case I survive, I mean, erm, if you make it worse, I will kill you."

"Okay,"  Much to Draco's relief she really managed to fix his hand, but it still hurt a bit, and he didn't know whether she had found a spell to prevent tetanus or something like that. 

When she was finished she looked even more relieved than he was, which told quite a lot about her healing skills. 

Having his arm not bleeding anymore Draco allowed himself to look at his surroundings a little closer. They were sitting in the middle of a clearing, but the trees around them had changed a bit. He didn't know how they were called , but they looked slightly different from those in the Forbidden Forest, although he couldn't tell why.

But the trees weren't interesting for Draco. He didn't like trees and plants, because he thought they were boring and that only pathetic and sentimental persons liked them. 

"Hey look at those trees!" Ginny exclaimed excitedly.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can see them. Big, brown and green objects, standing everywhere. I nearly can't see the forest because there are too many of them, in fact." He said, not trying to hide his disinterest on the topic.

"Take a look at them!" she said.

Draco glanced at the trees out of the corner of his eye, then looked at Ginny, cocking an eyebrow and not saying anything. 

"Can't you see it?" she said unbelievingly. "_Look at them. Oh, I can't believe this. I am sitting god-knows-where talking to a mole. Those.Trees.Are.Not.Trees.But.They.Are.Stones." she said as if she was talking to someone who was either extremely deaf or extremely dumb._

"Yes, so? There are some people who like to decorate their gardens with obscure obstacles. I myself don't even think they are that obscure in fact. I think they look rather real. Whoever made them, he did a good job!"

"Like with that guy over there!" Ginny said, looking at the statue. "I have my own idea what happened to this place, but if you think this is the handiwork of an extremely gifted and patient stone-mason…" she shrugged.

"Jesus, what should have 'happened'? Do you think that someone came and just petrified this whole place? That's ridiculous. Then the floor would have to be stone too, and see, it's all dusty and muddy." He kicked some of the dust into the air to show Ginny he was right. 

Instead of an answer she knelt down and began to remove all the dust, revealing that the layer of dust was only about 3 inches thick, and underneath there was solid stone. 

"I would say that we should take a look at that inscription on the tablet" she said, not waiting for him to say anything. 

Draco groaned, stayed silent, and just went over to the statue and sat down in front of it. Then he began reading out what was written on it, having quite a lot of difficulties with the vowels, and when he couldn't decipher something Ginny supplemented the matching word. In the end they translated the inscription like that:

_To those, who will read this, be aware,_

_there will come great harm to the world_

_is the secret revealed_

_which lies over this peaceful place_

_darkness will fall, _

_and only the ones who bring it,_

_may also ban it,_

_although it will never be banned_

_for eternity,_

_death is to come, for that is sure_

_if wakened is the fateful spirit of this place,_

_evil it is, and dark, so what the darkness will bring,_

_the light shall destroy_

_            Albus Dumbledore, 13.2.1945_

"So he has gone completely nuts. 'what the darkness will bring, the light shall destroy' now really, not very original. And besides, I doubt that Dumbledore was ever that handsome. I think he just put his name under the statue of a rather good-looking man so everybody would have thought it was him…although that guy looks a bit feminine to me." Draco said, more to himself than to Ginny.

"I guess that's because he wears so much jewellery. I mean, all those silly necklaces and bracelets" Ginny shook her head disapprovingly. "I think they were never fashionable, not even in 1945."

Draco's head jerked up when she mentioned the bracelets and necklaces. Somewhere in his mind something made click, and he had the feeling that he had just solved a riddle. But unfortunately it seemed as if he needed another click, because he didn't know any more than he had before. 

He just knew that these necklaces were important, and that he had heard something about that sort of thing before. But where?

He looked at the statue more closely. It looked rather strange, because the man was carved out of stone, just his eyes were big shining emeralds. In fact they weren't shining, but they were…glowing.

Draco groaned. He had made some rather embarrassing experiences with glowing things lately, and he still didn't like the sight of glowing things, especially if they weren't supposed to glow. 

He nudged Ginny with the elbow and said: "Hey, Weasley, his eyes are glowing"

She grinned lopsidedly and said "Well, no surprise you figured that out, seeing that you are an expert concerning things like that, aren't you?"

He grunted, while he was doing so a thought occurred to him. 

"Weasley?"

"Huh?"

"That inscription there says, da da da, so what the darkness will bring… d'you reckon you have to darken those emeralds?"

"Sounds rather silly to me."

Draco shook his head, lifted his hand and covered the emeralds, so that they couldn't send out any light. Just the moment he had done that, the world exploded. 

At least it seemed so. In fact, it didn't explode, there was just a veeeery loud bang and a lot of light coming from the statue, not more. But for Draco and Ginny it was enough to make them believe the world would explode, so they let themselves fall on the ground, covering their heads with their hands, screaming out loud.

After about twenty seconds the light had vanished.

"Good day, you two, I must say you just did me a great favour!" 

Ginny winced. Where had that voice come from? She turned around and looked at the statue. And gasped. 

"Malfoy, you should look at this…" she said, still not being able to believe her eyes.

Draco, who had still been lying on the ground, now got to an erect position, turned around and gasped too.

"Okay, do you see what I see, or have I gone mad?"

"To your first question: that depends on what you see, to the second: yes, definitely." Ginny, who had already managed to get herself under control again said.

"I see a very thin, very funny looking man who is in fact looking like he was breathing and…oh my god, he moved his eyes, and-hey, his eyes are blue."

"Erm, yes."

"And his hair is blond."

"Yup"

"And his clothes, they are coloured too"

"Correct. Your assumption?"

"That's no statue."

"Malfoy, you got the very worrying tendency to develop into a fast thinker."

By that time Draco had gained his composure again and was now looking at the man, trying to hide his curiosity.

"Is it just me or does he really wear pink robes?" he finally asked.

"He does wear pink robes."

"D'you reckon he's gay?"

At this the man who had watched them all the time moved. 

"I don't know weser it's common in Great Britain to talk about people when sey are standing in front of you, but where I come from, it is not."

"And where would that be, where you are coming from?" Ginny asked.

"Not se UK"

Ginny raised an eyebrow. That much had been obvious by his horrible pronunciation.

"Munich, Germany." The man said politely. 

Draco wondered why darkness should fall if this man was revived. Besides, who was this?

"Who are you?" Ginny asked in the same moment as Draco was thinking that.

"Herbert Grindelwald, at your service"

Grindelwald? Something in the back of Ginny's mind told her that she should know this name. Grindelwald, Herbert Grindelwald…she had heard that name before, …Herbert…something bad, something horrible…then realisation hit her like a Bludger.

"You're that horrible German singer, are you?" she shouted, glad to have found out from where she knew the name.

But her happiness was soon destroyed by Draco, who waved his hand dismissively and said: "Sorry to disappoint you girl, but that'd be Herbert Groenemayer!"

"Oh, yeah, right." She said sheepishly, noticing that she was rather relieved that he wasn't the singer the whole school had nightmares of. (They had an exchange student from Germany in her fourth year, and he was a fan of Herbert Groenemayer. He had sung his songs all the time he was at Hogwarts and had even sent Sheila a Groenemayer-tape in the holidays. When she had put it into her cassette recorder and actually played it her mother had threatened to disown her if she didn't turn if off _at once)_

At this point, Herbert Grindelwald, the funny man in the even funnier clothes thought that it was best to interfere.

"Herbert Grindelwald, most feared Dark Wizard during second world war"

"You? A Dark Wizard? Nice joke. Now, seriously, I know your name, what did you do, are you sure you're not something like a pop star?"

"I told you I was a Dark Wizard. Which reminds me... I have to get rid of you. You're the only ones who can kill me," he said, in a voice that couldn't be described with an other word than 'bored'. 

Ginny looked at him, confused, not believing what she had just heard. This man standing in front of her couldn't possibly be a Dark wizard, could he? She looked at Draco, expecting him to look as astonished as she was, but his face was expressionless, if you didn't count the sneer it was wearing all the time.

She was just about to say something, when Grindelwald, who had been so polite, calm and nice before suddenly changed his behaviour.

His rather naïve-looking face twisted into a cruel sneer, and his eyes began sparkling dangerously. "Get rid of you. Unfortunately, I can't kill you now, because I haven't got a wand. But I will send you to where I have spent the last half of the century. It's going to be like hell,…" then he began laughing diabolically.

"Now really, don't you think that's a tiny little bit cliché?" Draco asked, showing that he wasn't scared by the terrible laugh at all.

Ginny on the other side was rather impressed, because she had always imagined that only the bad guys in Disney films laughed that way. It was a laugh that could be described as a mixture of Cruella de Vil and Snowwhite's stepmother. (Ginny had seen quite a lot of Disney films when she was younger. She had always been the defenceless victim of her father's attempts to understand TV sets. He reckoned it was fun so she had seen 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Snowwhite' with both tone and pictures, 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Snowwhite', 'Lion King', 'Aladdin', 'Toy Story' 'Jungle Book', 'Arielle' and 'Pinocchio' without sound and 'Dumbo' without picture, which wasn't very entertaining because all you heard was singing and something that sounded like a trumpeting elephant. But she wasn't sure about that.)

Meanwhile Draco had to fight back the urge to laugh, because it sounded so ridiculous. He bit his lips so hard that he thought they had to start bleeding soon.

When Grindelwald noticed how weird he was laughing he stopped abruptly, cleared his throat and took off the necklaces and bracelets he was still wearing. 

Draco looked at them closely, still wondering why something in the back of his mind kept telling him that they were important. They looked really ridiculous. Most of them were just plain golden chains, but some held strange amulets that looked like suns, moons, and mythic runes. One of the necklaces was even covered with animal teeth, the combination with a silver chain making it seem rather ridiculous. Altogether it looked as if he was wearing the jewellery of about 15 different people, some of them surely being Crocodile Dundee, King Louis XIV of France and Morgain le Fay.

When Grindelwald had gotten rid of them he took a step forward and reached out for Ginny with one hand, the other one holding more than a dozen of necklaces. 

Ginny backed away, starting to wonder whether she should be afraid of this man or not. He seemed rather harmless to her, plus he hadn't got a wand. He was even less intimidating than Neville Longbottom! (Although Neville could be dangerous sometimes, involuntarily)

Draco had meanwhile taken a step forward and was now standing beside Ginny. His face was expressionless, and he just stood there and looked at the dark sky. He didn't seem to notice anything going on around him. Perhaps he was thinking.

He was, indeed. His mind was racing. _Necklaces, necklaces… he knew they were important, but why? _

Ginny looked at Draco, trying to figure out what he was up to, ignoring Grindelwald. 

_When I'm home, nobody will believe me that I found a guy, running around in pink robes, and claiming he was a powerful Dark wizard. He would make a good team with Gilderoy Lockhart in a freak show…, she mused_

Girl, as much as I love to argue with you, but maybe you should focus on reality right now. Ginny's conscious piped up

_Why should I? Maybe I should see to it that they were travelling around the country faking fights…             -oooh, I am se powerful Dark wizard Grindelwald, and I will kill you alllllll_

_                        -Stop it there, I will not let you kill them, as long as I live_

_                        -Huh? What kind of clown are you?_

_                        -I am the powerful Auror Gilderoy Lock…_

Virginia Weasley, stop those silly thoughts, NOW! That Grindelwald guy is covering you and Malfoy with necklaces!

_What????_

Ginny snapped back into reality just as Grindelwald had finished pulling the last necklace over her head. 

"Hey, what are you doing? Jesus, this stuff sure _is ugly!" Ginny looked down at all the gold covering her. _

"But I told you I would get rid of you. Didn't you listen?" Grindelwald looked offended.

"How do you think are you going to do it? I mean, this stuff does look horrible on me, but I don't think it will kill me"

Grindelwald shook his head. "It is going to be like hell." He rubbed his hands. "Ooooh, I would like to watch! I am kind of a sadist. Always was. But sis place…can do sings to you… you heard me laugh…oh, I'm turning into one of sem…shoulda sent you sere right away. Look at me now! Standing here actually _explaining sings to you! Like the bad guys do in all those Muggle books…now, good bye…" he grinned a cruel grin._

That seemed somehow wrong to Ginny. This man shouldn't be grinning evil grins. He was supposed to grin stupid grins.

She turned to look at Draco. He was still staring into the sky. But suddenly he moved.

"Ha, I knew it was important!" he shouted just in the moment Grindelwald started reciting something that sounded suspiciously like an incantation. His voice was no longer sounding nice or polite, it was now deep and full. He had his eyes closed and was concentrating  hard on what he was doing.

_"Lords of Grimm, I, Herbert Grindelwald, speak to you, so you will listen and obey. I will give you two souls, as you have suffered se loss of one. Fire and ice, light and darkness I send to you, keep sem safe in your hands, don't let sem escape your powerful embrace. Only sey shall be returned, if loved ones to each one of sem, and enemies, unite to free their suffering souls. Blood wants blood, soul wants soul, and only what is given can be taken. Now take sem, welcome sem, make seir lives hell…" he finished his speech, which had seemed as if it would never end at first._

As soon as Grindelwald had spoken the first word, Ginny and Draco froze in the middle of their movements, and had to watch as their feet began to feel heavier and turned grey. As the speech proceeded the heaviness and greyness slowly made his way up their bodies, and Ginny realised in horror that she was turning to stone. As she couldn't move her eyes she wasn't able to see what happened to Draco, but she was sure that he was turning to stone too.

When Grindelwald was finally finished, she felt a sudden pain in her whole body. It felt as if she was being torn apart, as if her soul was being ripped from her body. The horrible feeling lasted for only two seconds, but those seconds seemed like ages to Ginny. She tried to scream, but she couldn't.

Finally the pain ebbed away, and Ginny was left with a feeling of nausea coming over her, followed by a sudden fit of dizziness. She toppled and finally fell to the ground, breathing hard. 

A minute later these feelings vanished too, and Ginny opened the eyes she couldn't remember to have closed. She saw something silvery and green above her, but her vision was blurred, and she couldn't figure out what it was. 

_Green! Silver! Oh my god. He said it was going to be like hell… am I in Slytherin common room?she thought. If she had spoken it out, her voice would have certainly sounded panicky._

"Hello, Weasley? Knock-knock, anyone at home? Stop staring at me as if I had two heads. SNAP THE HELL OUT OF IT OR I WILL DO SOMETHING WITH MY WAND THAT WOULD MAKE YOU THINK OF A PROCTOLOGIC EXAMINATION AS PARADISE. Well, I guess I'd better take your wand for that…"a voice said, screamed and said these things, making Ginny wish to bang the head of whoever was making so much noise. (That person obviously had a rich imagination concerning doing unpleasant things to others)

She moaned and closed her eyes, only to open them again after a couple of seconds. Slowly, very slowly her surroundings began to come into clearer focus, and after a while she saw that she wasn't in the Slytherin common room, but was lying somewhere in a forest, (that was the green thing she had seen) and Malfoy was standing above her, looking _very irritated. _

"Oh it's just you," she said, relieved. If that Grindelwald guy had thought that her hell would include Draco Malfoy he had been wrong. 

She sat up and finally even managed to stand, but her knees felt like jelly, and her movements seemed rather uncoordinated altogether. 

"I should have known," Draco said irritated. "_Exitus Incantation. Makes a person go somewhere…can't remember where though. Wandless magic, needs a very powerful magical place…and lots of jewellery to be performed. Should have known instantly. With all the stone and stuff…oh, this is __stupid!" he seemed to talk to himself rather than to Ginny. In fact he seemed to have forgotten her presence which wasn't a bad thing considering his current mood._

"Where the hell does this send you?" he continued his thoughts. Suddenly he noticed Ginny, spun around and asked her, like a shot "Weasley, where does an _Exitus Incantation send you?"_

"_Exitus Incantation? Sounds like death to me…," Ginny guessed, shuddering at the thought that she might be dead right now and this place was where you ended up in your afterlife._

"Bollocks! Exitus means just that you have gone away. The thing with exitus meaning death is just used because your soul exited your corps. Where are we?" Draco said, while a look of superiority crossed his face and replaced the usual sneer for a moment. 

_Yeah, where are we? Good question. Ginny looked around and saw that they were in the middle of a forest, but there was a house standing not too far away from where they were standing. Ginny wasn't good at guessing distances so she didn't even bother to try._

It looked rather familiar to Ginny. Its walls were made of biscuits, the flowers in the garden were lollis, the roof and the chimney were made of chocolate bars, and so it went for the windows (sugar), windowsills (Brownies) and the rest of the house.

"Oh dear, I know where we are!" she shouted excitedly, running towards the house. 

Draco, who had been lost in thoughts until then, looked up surprised and then followed her.

When she arrived at the front door of the house (it was made of Gingerbread) Ginny suddenly felt how hungry she was. She pulled out one of the biscuits building the wall and took a bite.

"Oooooh, shortbread!" She squealed delightedly.

Draco stood in front of the house, looking at it, confused. "Weasley, would you be so kind as to tell me what this is all about?" he finally asked, irritated because she seemed to know something he didn't. And Draco Malfoy hated it if someone else knew something he didn't.

Ginny grinned. "Malfoy?" she finally asked. "Has your mother ever told you any fairy tales?" 

Tbc...

Okay, enough for now. I know it was shorter, but it has a lot of plot stuffed into it. I'll explain the _Exitus Incantation thing a bit more detailed next chapter. It will also contain some fairy tales, but I'm not sure which ones. Draco and Ginny certainly will try to get out of that fairy tale-world, but they will at least spend the next two chapters there._

Hey, you could do me a favor and tell me which fairy tales I should use? (be sure that I will distort them a little)

And there are a few people I'd like to thank for reviewing:

**Silver** (Slovakia won, so what? You haven't even got the Slovakian citizenship you moron! Hey, don't be mad at me. You're a really sweet moron!), **Anne**, **Angel of Shadows** (sorry I didn't thank you earlier!), **Ms. Raye Sinic, Weirdme030589, ****Heather M., Sam** (Yeah, struggling with it myself. Although my Draco tends to be lost in thoughts all the time. But it's getting out of control. He acts like he wants!)


	4. Of Fairy Tales And Cannibalism

MUCH ADO ABOUT DRACO (4/?)

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

I don't own the _Silentium Spell_. My good friend and beta-reader used it in her fic 'The Black Star' earlier, and we are quite sure she invented it. But not entirely sure. It doesn't appear in the books, that's for sure.

The 'Hansel and Gretel' fairy tale belongs to…well, I think it would belong to the Grimm Brothers, but, it's an old story, and I think you all know it, so I don't have to tell you it's not mine.

Takes place in Ginny's 6th year, will later include some D/G and (only peripheral) some H/Cho. If you want to know the plot, you'll just have to read.

**Author's Note: **As always this chapter is dedicated to my precious beta-readers silvipotter and Silver. And to Weezer and Bryan Adams too, because I listened to their music this time. They probably won't give a shit anyway (sorry for the language, but sadly it's true) but I still dedicate it to them. I need musical inspiration!****

I hope the rating is appropriate, since there's a bit of heavy swearing in this chapter. Just wanted to tell you!

Chapter 4: Of Fairy Tales and Cannibalism

Ginny grinned. "Malfoy?" she finally asked. "Has your mother ever told you any fairy tales?"

"Fairy tales?" he asked, trying hard and failing in hiding his shocked expression.

"You are asking ME if my mother ever told me any fairy tales? Fairy tales are for girls!"

Boy, he looks as if he really means it! Ginny thought, smiling inwardly. Because of some unfathomable reason she thought that was cute. 

"Of course they are for girls. But for boys as well!" She told him, shaking her head and smiling at the memory of Fred and George who had always declared that fairy tales were only for girls, that they wouldn't even want to touch her books because they said 'they wouldn't be able to turn us into girls but I think they are powerful enough to make sure we end up gay!' One day she had noticed that two of her books were missing, finally (after searching through every corner of her house) found Fred and George, sitting in their room, reading them and being so busy and enthusiastic about it that they didn't even notice her watching them. They had been quite embarrassed when they had noticed her presence.

Draco snorted contemptuously. "If you think so" he drawled. "But what should fairy tales have got to do with this over-sized cookie?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Weeeell, I'm afraid you would have to listen to me for quite a long time. I'm not sure whether you'd be able to do that without telling me that I'm a…a…I don't know, something rude." " –no, I don't need you to give me an example, thank you very much," she added hastily when she saw that he was inhaling and opening his mouth as if to say something.  

"I wasn't trying to give you an example. I wanted to tell you that I might put a Silentium Spell on myself. I'm afraid that's the only way of keeping me from being rude to you. But as I'm not sure whether you would undo the spell afterwards I'll have to try and behave. Make it as quick as you can. I'm not known for being patient," he told her, his voice gaining a dangerous note towards the end.

"Erm, okay." Ginny said hastily, suspecting that her eyes looked slightly panicky. "Once upon a time there were two siblings, Hansel and Gretel. Their parents were really poor, you see..."  

At this Draco had to fight back the urge to ask whether they were even poorer than the Weasleys. 

"...and they couldn't afford to feed the children. So their mother-or was it their stepmother, I don't know for sure, well, she sent them into the forest, to…" she continued to tell the story of Hansel and Gretel to Draco and was quite contended when she saw that he was fascinated by it because he was looking slightly disappointed when the story ended. "…and they lived happily ever after. Dunno whether they married a prince or a princess but I  doubt that. End of the story." 

"So you think this is the hut of the witch who turned children into cookies?" he asked, narrowing his eyes, inspecting the house closely.

"Um, yes,I,…I guess I do." Ginny stuttered. She knew it sounded absurd. But she was quite sure that there was an ugly old hag living in there. She secretly hoped that Lucius Malfoy would never meet her. The thought of so much evil accumulated in one place was not a very brightening one.

"I wonder…" Draco pulled one of the biscuits eyeing it as if he was searching something veeery tiny on it's surface  "I wonder if I could be considered as a cannibal if I ate that." 

Ginny cocked an eyebrow. "I very much doubt that. A cannibal is a human being eating human flesh. But this is a cookie, ergo you would eat something completely inhuman. And it doesn't look like a human being," she concluded

"Yeah, but then gummibears gummy bears don't look like it but there's parts of animal bones in them. Do you think you would be a real vegetarian if you ate gummy bears?" he shot back. 

Before Ginny could say anything a third voice coming from behind them began shouting and swearing. When they turned around they saw a young woman, tall, with wavy, blond hair, dressed only where necessary.  

She didn't wear a lot more than underwear. Meaning that she was wearing leather boots, a pair of leather hot-pants and something that looked like a leather top. But Ginny wasn't sure, since it was merely a stripe of black leather beginning shortly above her breasts and, ending not much farther down. She was wearing tons of make-up and also had a piercing on her navel. Gods, Ginny thought. The last thing missing in her appearance is a tattoo of a dragon or something like that.

The woman just kept swearing, meanwhile trying to pull a Harley Davidson behind her towards the entrance. When she did so her hair that had been covering her arms was blown back by a soft breeze, revealing a tattoo on her upper arm. It was a dragon. 

She just looks like the potential victim of this witch. Blonde and completely and utterly dumb. I don't know whether she is dumb but she looks like one of those girls with much butt and no brains at all. Ginny mused after seeing the tattoo.

"Gods-dammit-hell-…-so stupid! Shoulda never done that-who the fucking hell … I'm gonna shove this machine his fucking arse up. Oh, no, who's that now!" she seemed to have meant Ginny and Draco "Another silly couple with too much stomach, eh? Are you crazy? What would you say if I started eating your house?" 

Bon appétit. I wouldn't recommend the Weasley house since there's Ghouls and Weasleys in there but it's your choice. It's not my fault if you get a severe case of stomach-ache. Draco thought.

You must be quite hungry to even eat the portal but to eat the whole house…nobody has such a big stomach! Ginny thought. Besides I think it is really creepy to eat the family-own catacombs dad told me of.

The scarcely dressed woman seemed to be waiting for an answer. Ginny didn't know what to say, so she muttered something about not being able to believe she would ever be in that situation.

She hadn't intended on anybody hearing it and had said it almost inaudibly but Draco seemed to have heard it because he smirked and said "You bet!" he looked extremely smug.  

Acting superiorly towards others, towards poorer people was just so much fun in his opinion.

Usually the people then thought of something witty to say but Ginny didn't even bother thinking of something intelligent to say. The stress of the whole situation suddenly broke down on her and she did the first thing that crossed her mind.

In this case it was tackling Draco. She knocked him over, having caught him off-guard and was soon sitting on top of his chest, fists flying, trying to punch him and yelling at him at the same time which seemed to be not as easy as she had thought. 

"How dare you say such a thing?" she shouted furiously, her eyes blazing with fury. 

Draco was having a hard time avoiding her fists but he still had the time to answer. At least he thought so. He was just starting to say something when she managed to land a hard punch on his nose. He let out a pained "oof" and brought a hand to his nose, noticing that it was bleeding.

As soon as she had seen the blood coming out of his nose Ginny had ceased hitting Draco and was staring at him in disbelief and horror. What have I done? She thought hysterically. She had completely lost control of herself! 

"Um Malfoy, listen, I'm ... I'm sorry," Ginny stuttered "I didn't want to, uh…!" 

"Just get off my chest and shut the hell up!" Draco hissed disdainfully. 

"Your chest?" Ginny asked, startled. Then she looked down and realized the position she was in. Even thinking about it would have had her blushing furiously any other day or time but now she was too confused to, so she merely swallowed and was just about to climb off him when someone gripped her shoulder firmly and was pulled to an erect position.

Draco sighed with relief when her weight was lifted off him, firstly because she had been crushing his chest and he hadn't been able to breathe and secondly because he wanted the strange tingling feeling that had been there when she was sitting on his chest to go away. Not that it had been unpleasant, he just thought it was not right to enjoy a Weasley sitting on top of him. 

While Draco was sighing with relief, Ginny had turned to look at the woman who really didn't look like a Dark Witch who ate children. Cookies, not children! She corrected herself mentally.  

"How about we go inside," the woman suggested with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. 

She was already dragging Ginny to the door and because Ginny was so confused she didn't put up any resistance. 

The inside of the house looked so completely different from the outside. It was hard to believe they belonged to each other. There was only something that looked like a prison cell: an oven, a shelf with cooking supplies, a pile of chopped wood and a wooden stool. The woman dragged Ginny into the prison cell, locked it and disappeared out of the door. 

Ginny stood in the middle of the cell, carefully taking in every detail of her surroundings. There were three mattresses on the ground, and in one corner there stood a chamber-pot. And that was about everything. So this cell is made for three people Ginny mused when she heard a sickening noise. She couldn't tell what it was but she knew she didn't like it. 

A minute later she knew what the sound had been: the witch must have kicked Draco because she pulled him through the door into the cell and he was clutching his stomach tightly, groaning. 

She then locked the cell again, and muttered something along the lines of "Serves him right if he refuses to stand up" at Ginny's shocked expression. Then she turned on her heel, left the hut and after a couple of seconds of awkward silence an engine roared, the sound getting fainter as the witch rode away on her Harley.

Ginny waited anther two minutes after the sound had completely faded, she turned and looked at the figure lying on the floor.

"Um, Malfoy, are you okay?" she asked timidly while touching his arm to turn him around, so he was looking at her. He shook her arm off with a brisk  movement and hissed something through gritted teeth but Ginny didn't understand him.

"What did you say?" she asked.

"I said 'Don't touch me'"

Ginny snorted. "Don't be stupid. You need help. Turn around!" she commanded and wondered briefly how she managed to let her voice sound that firm. 

Sighing Draco turned around and Ginny gasped. His face wasn't as expressionless as always. Instead there was a pained look in his half closed eyes and his face was smeared with blood. His breath came ragged and if possible he looked even paler than he usually did. 

With one swift motion, Ginny had removed her cloak and was tearing it apart, so she had a part of the fabric in the size of a paper tissue. She conjured up a bowl of water, dipped the piece of cloth in briefly and began wiping Draco's face.

He was tempted to push her away at first but let her continue because he wasn't sure whether he was able to do it himself and because her light touch felt good. Which couldn't be said of his stomach. Gods, it hurt! That bitch had kicked him with enough force to get a Quaffle flying across three Quidditch pitches.

When she was finished with cleaning his face Ginny did her best to fix his still bleeding nose and thought of something to do about Draco's stomach but as he had no open wounds there she didn't know what to do. While she had wiped away his blood Draco had relaxed a little, so Ginny thought the pain would be ebbing away by itself anyway. 

Absently, she brushed away a strand of hair that was hanging in his eye and felt shivers run down her spine while she was doing so. This is odd! She thought. Why do shivers run down my spine when I'm brushing away his hair. In those novels I read it's always the other way round! 

Unsure of what to do she cleared her throat and because she still didn't know what to do she cleared her throat again.

"Stop clearing your throat Weasley, it disturbs me in my self-pity" Draco snapped, when she cleared her throat for the third time. 

"Oh, I'm sooooo sorry, poor little Draco is suffering and I dare to clear my throat. Bad me!" she said with fake shame, slapping herself lightly while saying the last two words.

"Shut it, you're giving me a headache!" Draco groaned. "And to you it's Malfoy!" he added

"This leads me to the conclusion that you don't like me. What an indignity!" Ginny said in the same fake voice as before. 

"Aargh, fuck you Weasley!" Draco said while covering his eyes with his hands as if in pain.

"Not with you watching," she replied looking very smug as she saw him dropping his hands and his eyes growing wide.  

Somehow they had skipped roles. She was now the smug one and he the poor fellow who just wanted to be left alone. Ginny knew she wasn't being fair but she had been a good girl for all her life and now her desire to pay things back had taken the upper hand in the battle with her conscience.

"She does have strong legs, eh? Or is it just hard boots?" Ginny asked mockingly, actually enjoying the pained look on his face but being mildly disappointed because he didn't reply.

"You know what?" Ginny said, looking at the ceiling as if it was something very interesting. "I think you should definitely sleep a while. You look pretty beat up and exhausted." 

"What do you think I've been trying to do all the time now?" Draco snapped, being more than just a little angry, at her and at the fact that he wasn't able to think clearly or to sit up. 

"Then why are you lying on the floor if there's a mattress?" Ginny retorted, eyeing him skeptically. 

Draco's eyes flew open instantly. "There's a mattress?" he asked unbelievingly.

"Yes, there's a mattress, and if you had looked around instead of trying to drown in your self-pity you would have noticed that there's not just one mattress but that there are three!" she answered dryly. 

He rolled his eyes which caused him to wince as a sharp pain shot through his head. Slowly, very slowly he got to his knees and crawled over to the nearest mattress, slumped down on it and fell asleep almost immediately, relieved that the Weasley girl had stopped talking. She was so unnerving! What did she think of? He was lying there completely help- and defenseless and she was abusing the state he was in. Just before he fell asleep a tiny, unpleasant voice piped up in his head, almost whispering the words just like you use to do…

Ginny sat in a corner of the cell and watched Draco. He had fallen asleep immediately after lying down on the mattress. Other people looked cute, or younger when they slept. Draco didn't. His face was expressionless and apart from the fact that his nose was slightly swollen and he didn't smirk or sneer he didn't look any different from how he usually did.

So, what was this about? Her conscious asked curiously.

What was what about? Ginny replied, her eyes not leaving Draco.

Erm, why where you acting so,… strange? You know, being sarcastic and all. That's not you. And besides I thought you fancied him?

I don't fancy him. And I was just in the mood for being sarcastic. It's my bloody right to be sarcastic! 

You do fancy him. If that's your way of showing affection…kicking someone lying on the floor… the voice in her head said indignantly.

Ah-correction. I didn't kick someone lying on the floor. This strange lady did. 

I didn't mean that literally. The conscious replied matter-of-factly.

Oh. You think I was unfair? But he acts that way all the time! Ginny knew this was even lamer than it sounded.

And do you think everything he does is right?

Certainly not! 

And do you think it is an excuse for misbehaving if he does it too?

No. Ginny said, her mental voice sounding more than a bit ashamed.

Fine, point cleared. So, why did you really act that weird? The conscious inquired.

I honestly don't know. One moment he makes me go mad and furious and the next I sit there actually brushing his skin softly just wanting to kiss him and the next he gets me angry again. She said despairingly.

My, my, you really don't know what's going on! Shall I print it on your forehead? You're in lo-ove! The conscious said in a strange sing-song voice.

Well, duh! I was in love with Harry for, wait how long was it? Um, several years, and I never ever behaved that bitchy towards him. I never ever behaved like that before in my whole life!

Well, Harry was just a little crush.

Just a little crush? Yeah, and Mount Everest is just some little hill somewhere in the nowhere of Nepal, and Birmingham Palace is just a little cottage, the Atlantic sea is only a small pond, and-

Okay, I get the point. If you say so, it was not a little crush. What I was trying to say is that, oh, I don't know, you're a teenager, and teenagers sometimes love the people most they are unfriendly to.

Oh, really? Well, at least your lecture had one advantage: now I know that I will never have a chance with Malfoy, since he is madly in love with Harry Potter!

You know exactly that that is not true!

And how would I know? I don't know what's going on in his twisted brain.

I could pay him another visit, if you want me to and just ask him whether he's in love with Harry.

Are you crazy? Are you totally insane? Have you gone completely mad now?

Yes, yes and yes. After all, I'm your conscious.

Oh, very funny!

I know. Mostly I've got the same attributes as you but thankfully there are some differences. Like me having a good sense of humor. 

Aw, shut up, leave me alone, go visit Malfoy, or someone else, but go for god's sake!

As you wish. Bye then!

When her conscious had gone or at least shut up (it was hard to tell the difference) Ginny sighed with relief, and tried to get some sleep again. They were trapped in there for a while and she was tired.

When he awoke, Draco felt a lot better. Not strangely acting Weasley. She was sleeping, thank god. He felt like he couldn't bear a conversation with her at the moment.

Five minutes later he changed his mind. Hell, being beat up and imprisoned was _boring!_

_Wake up Weasley, he thought, __I'm bored!_

Well, she won't wake up, I'm sure of that! She's sleeping like a baby. Needs her beauty sleep. Y'know, she'd look even worse if she didn't have it a rather familiar voice piped up in his mind. Weasley's conscious!

_You just leave me alone! He snapped_

But I thought you wanted to talk to her. The conscious replied smugly

No, I didn't 

Yes, you did.

_How the hell do you want to know that? Draco asked angrily._

I can see your thougths!

_You can what? Draco choked, mentally of course._

I can see your thoughts. The conscious repeated. Does this make you feel naked or something? It addeed hopefully.

Draco was meanwhile trying desperately not to imagine how he looked naked. This was typically human: somebody tells you he's gonna shove an ironing board up your ass crossway, and poff, this image pops up in your mind: you, standing in front of a mirror, tying desperately to hide those big bulges on both sides of your hips.

_Does Weasley feel naked when you look at her thoughts? He asked with great effort._

She doesn't have to…I'm her conscious after all! I know how she looks naked. The nasty voice replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world. In fact, perhaps it _was one of the most natural things in the world._

Draco's eyes grew wide nevertheless and he asked in an unusually hoarse voice _You do? Erm…no chance telling me?_

No! Go look for yourself

Hey, what do you think of me? 

Not much, to be honest. But she threw me out! Idiot girl! The conscious said indignantly

_What, she threw you out? How did she do that? Draco tried to let his voice not sound __too jealous._

No point trying to hide anything from me…I see all!

All? Everything? Like, say, see how I look naked? 

Of course! I think I'll go now, Ginny's about to wake up. Oh, and, nice boxers!

Hey, no; no, stay, don't go! Don't you dare tell…hey! Hello…

No answer

_Where are you? Come back you…please? You know I'm a lot more fun to be around than Weasley! But the conscious had gone._

And really, as it had predicted, Ginny woke up not much later, and Draco hoped that the goddamn conscious wouldn't spill his most private thoughts and secrets. He eyed Ginny, who was stretching her arms and yawning as if her life depend

When he awoke, Draco felt a lot better. Not strangely acting Weasley. She was sleeping, thank god. He felt like he couldn't bear a conversation with her at the moment.

Five minutes later he changed his mind. Hell, being beat up and imprisoned was _boring!_

_Wake up Weasley, he thought, __I'm bored!_

Well, she won't wake up, I'm sure of that! She's sleeping like a baby. Needs her beauty sleep. Y'know, she'd look even worse if she didn't have it a rather familiar voice piped up in his mind. Weasley's conscious!

_You just leave me alone! He snapped_

But I thought you wanted to talk to her. The conscious replied smugly

No, I didn't 

Yes, you did.

_How the hell do you want to know that? Draco asked angrily._

I can see your thoughts!

_You can what? Draco choked, mentally of course._

I can see your thoughts. The conscious repeated. Does this make you feel naked or something? It added hopefully.

Draco was meanwhile trying desperately not to imagine how he looked naked. This was typically human: somebody tells you he's gonna shove an ironing board up your ass crossways, and poof, this image pops up in your mind: you, standing in front of a mirror, tying desperately to hide those big bulges on both sides of your hips.

_Does Weasley feel naked when you look at her thoughts? He asked with great effort._

She doesn't have to…I'm her conscious after all! I know how she looks naked. The nasty voice replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world. In fact, perhaps it _was one of the most natural things in the world._

Draco's eyes grew wide nevertheless, and he asked in an unusually hoarse voice _You do? Erm…no chance telling me?_

No! Go look for yourself

Hey, what do you think of me? 

Not much, to be honest. But she threw me out! Idiot girl! The conscious said indignantly

_What, she threw you out? How did she do that? Draco tried to let his voice not sound __too jealous._

No point trying to hide anything from me…I see all! 

All? Everything? Like, say, see how I look naked? 

Of course! I think I'll go now, Ginny's about to wake up. Oh, and, nice boxers!

Hey, no; no, stay, don't go! Don't you dare tell…hey! Hello…

No answer

_Where are you? Come back you…please? You know I'm a lot more fun to be around than Weasley! But the conscious had gone._

And really, as it had predicted, Ginny woke up not much later, and Draco hoped that the goddamn conscious wouldn't spill his most private thoughts and secrets. He eyed her suspiciously, while she was stretching her arms and yawning as if her life depended on it.

AN: Just to your information: the situation the two of them are in at the moment is not very dangerous. They could escape easily, being wizards and all, but with Draco beaten up, Ginny just wanted to take a rest and so on. I just wanted to tell you this, because I think it may appear rather odd that they aren't the least bit worried.

I know it's 'I see everything' but I can't get the image from that scene from 'Rocky Horror Picture Show out' of my mind, where they sing the 'Time Warp', and Magenta says in this really mysterious/seducing/…? voice 'I see all'

Next chapter: their escape, a new companion, and Ginny gets really uncomfortable new shoes. 


	5. Of Milk And Feathers

**MUCH ADO ABOUT DRACO (5/?)**

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Grindelwald is mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone, but I formed his character, Jean-Pierre belongs to Dazma and Domenica Scarlatti to Silver. (Thanks guys!)

Sheila Wood, Perth Johnson, Carmencita Bell and Robin Wainwright who appear in other chapters are mine!

The song Grindelwald sings at the end of the chapter does not exist. I made it up (while being in a really weird mood, I admit).

The Flying Maniac is mine, although I have to admit that he is a, errrr, distorted version of Peter Pan.

Takes place in Ginny's 6th year, will later include some D/G and (only peripheral) some H/Cho. If you want to know the plot, you'll just have to read.

Author's notes: I know I haven't updated this in quite a long time, and I don't know if there'll be a chapter 6. Perhaps there will. I'm currently working at another D/G fic, which I'll be calling "Rest in Pieces", so watch out for that one. The first chapter is already written, and currently in the hands of my dear betas. Cheers, Ri

**Chapter 5: Of milk and feathers**

And really, as it had predicted, Ginny woke up not much later, and Draco hoped that the goddamn conscious wouldn't spill his most private thoughts and secrets. He eyed her suspiciously, while she was stretching her arms and yawning as if her life depended on it.

"You feelin' better?" she asked groggily. 

"Yes, I am. And what do we do now?" Draco answered gloomily. Like everything else on this planet, Draco had to abide certain scientifical laws. There are many such laws, (like, s = v x t; ∆U = W + Q; and so on and so on) in Draco's case, the law was: G + t = (bm + T) x 24. Ginny + talking means bad mood and trouble for the whole day. 

"Well, I think we will get out of here. I don't intend to stay here, you know. Room service isn't as good as expected and all. And don't look at me like that. You're a wizard, I'm a witch, I think we'll manage to open this goddamn door. _Alohomora_!" Ginny said, watching smugly as the cell door swung open. 

Draco blinked. "I thought she was a witch?" he said, not being able to believe that she hadn't put any lock-cracking-preservation spells on the door. 

"And she thinks we are not. Besides, I think a witch is something else in fairy tales. Got to do something with odd spells and foul, stinking potions" Ginny explained.

Draco blinked again. "Odd spells? Foul, stinking potions? Seems vaguely familiar to me. Odd spells… have you ever thought about what our spells _mean_? And foul, stinking potions! Hell, have you ever been in Snape's classroom and it smelled of lavender?" Draco snorted. This didn't seem any different to him.

"Erm, okay" Ginny admitted, slowly.

Suddenly a cold breeze went through the whole room, and the torch that was lighting it up began flickering dramatically. 

Was Ginny imagining things, or did the room suddenly look a slight bit dimmer?

She cautiously turned around, to see what had caused the sudden chill, and was rewarded with the sight of the 'hag', dressed as always – in black leather straps and heavy leather boots. 

Her hair was in complete disorder, and all in all she would have looked quite menacing, if it hadn't been for her red nose and ears.

"Fuckin' cold out there" the woman muttered, stopping abruptly when she saw the cell door wide open. 

Then she blinked. Nothing happened.

She blinked again. 

"The door is open" she stated rather unnecessarily.

"Ooooh, bright, aren't we?" Draco snapped, glaring at her. Apparently he had not forgotten the way she had kicked him. Well, of course he hadn't, since his stomach still felt a little…elsewhere. Maybe in Thailand. He only hoped it didn't do any drugs or give in to sex tourism. 

The woman dared to glare back, then made a quick gesture with her hand and the door swung shut again. 

Ginny took a step towards Draco. "See what I meant?" she asked quietly.

Draco cocked an eyebrow. "What was this now, the stinking potions or the odd spells part?" he asked mockingly. 

"Oh, shut it" Ginny sighed. "I told you she's supposed to be stuffed into the oven. I'll open the door, you'll heat the oven, and then we shove her in there together, understood?"

Draco nodded curtly. 

Ginny turned around and saw that the 'hag' was busying herself with trying to brush her hair. No success so far, she noted with satisfaction.

Then she quietly whispered _Alohomora_, while Draco had silently lit the oven with a spell. 

The woman hadn't noticed. They both looked at each other, determined. 

Ginny kicked the door open with her foot, and they both left the cell, grabbing the other witch and, trying to stuff her into the oven.

BANG!

Ginny's ears rang. What the hell had happened? 

The girl opened her eyes, surveying her surroundings. She was sitting on the floor, legs sprawled, and her backside was aching. Draco was in quite a similar position, looking equally baffled, apparently not remembering to look all composed, much to his own surprise.

The witch lay on the floor, rubbing her head, groaning. 

"Ooooow!" she drawled painedly and rolled her eyes. "Somebody get me some ice! Why did you do that?" she asked, looking like a little puppy who had just been kicked which was a rather impressive feat. (Probably even harder than to imagine Pamela Anderson in a bunny dress. No, not _that_ sort of bunny dress. I said _harder_)

"Why did we do what?" Ginny asked stupidly. 

"Why did you bang my head against the stove?" the woman said angrily.

"Against the stove?" Ginny turned to look at Draco, then at the stove. The door was shut. She groaned. 

Gods, this was stupid!

Draco crawled to the stove and opened it. The opening was a rectangle and about 8 inches wide on the longer side. They wouldn't have gotten her through that mousehole anyway!

"Fine" Draco said, looking extremely annoyed. "_Ignis_" he said, pointing his wand at the woman, and her hair caught fire immediately. 

She shrieked, and tried to get the fire out by hitting it, but she only made it worse. 

She scrieched, and then ran out of the hut. 

Ginny looked at Draco, astonished. "You set her hair on fire?" she said unbelievingly. 

"Well, we couldn't get her into the fire, so I thought we'd bring the fire to her!" he said.

"She might die!" Ginny scolded him. 

"Well, duh!" 

"I _can't_ kill somebody, I mean this is-" she was stopped by a loud, splashing noise. 

"What was that?" she asked, alarmed.

Draco shrugged, and they both went out to look for the source of the noise. At first they didn't see anything special, but then Draco noticed a small pond in the backyard.

He tugged at Ginny's sleeve and then went to look why the pond was blubbering somewhat oddly.

Bubbles were appearing on the surface now and then, but that wasn't what caught Draco's attention. It was the color of the water that startled him. It was white.

Ginny kneeled down beside him, frowning. She reached out a hand and then stuck it into the 'water', although she wasn't entirely sure it even was water. 

She was just about to pull her hand out again, when something grabbed her and pulled downwards hard. 

Ginny shrieked, and fell into the bubbling liquid, but the shriek was interrupted by the white substance filling her mouth and nose. 

It tasted strangely of milk and honey.

Whatever had gripped her hand had let go, and Ginny tried to swim to the surface. She had just reached it and breathed in as much air as she could, when the something got hold of her ankle, and pulled downward again. 

This time it didn't let go, though. Ginny saw the shimmering surface getting further and further away, until she was enveloped in complete darkness. 

The milky substance stung in her eyes, so she shut them, trying not to breathe out, and meanwhile kicking madly at the thing holding her ankle.

But the firm grip didn't loosen. Ginny reached down, trying to identify whatever was holding her. She already felt the stinging pain in her lungs telling her she had better breathe soon. 

When she finally managed to reach her ankle, she nearly fainted when she touched it. She was held under milk by a hand. A very human hand, in fact.

The witch must have jumped in there to extinguish the fire. My god, and now she was holding onto Ginny, drowning her. 

The pain in her lungs got more and more intense, and she felt as if her ribcage was going to burst soon. If it hadn't been all dark around her anyway she would have noticed everything around her turning black. 

The pain stopped abruptly, and she felt herself drifting towards unconsciousness and certain death. She would breathe in milk if she lost consciousness, she knew it. But it didn't matter now, since the pain would go away. 

She opened her eyes one last time. Hey, she could already see the bright, white light and the angel coming!

Her last thought was what an undignifying death drowning in milk would be. Even worse than getting killed by a monster-sized flobberworm.

***

Draco stood at the edge of the pond looking slightly green. Weasley had fallen in there over a minute ago, and given him quite a fright with that to be honest. By the time she had appeared at the surface again Draco had regained his composure, and was about to tell her off for it, when she suddenly disappeared from view again, more bubbles erupting on the surface. 

This time she didn't appear on the surface a couple of seconds later. She didn't appear half a minute later, and now it was a minute, and still no sign of the red haired girl.

_Hey, what's up Malfoy, this is what you've been waiting for for six years now, cheer up, and don't look as if it was your fa- your mother's funeral! _he scolded himself.

But it didn't help the fact that he was actually near hysterics. He couldn't let her die like that. He couldn't kill somebody, much less let somebody die.

_You were able to set the woman's hair on fire,_ a nasty voice in the back of his mind reminded him. He shoved it away, giving his designer-wear clothes one last, pityful glance, lit his wand and then jumped into the misty white liquid. 

Half a second later he realized he had just jumped into the biggest accumulation of milk he had ever seen. Bleh, he hated milk. 

He tried to dive further down, but since he still had his wand in his left hand he had a rather hard job doing so. It took him a few seconds of unnecessary struggling when he came up with something that struck him as being a really good idea. He put his wand between his teeth. Which turned out to be not that good an idea, since now the light shone entirely in the wrong direction, so he took the wand out of his mouth again.

_How deep can a milk pond be?_ He asked himself irritably, when he suddenly saw her. She had her eyes open, but when he got nearer she closed them, and he saw with horror that there were bubbles emerging from her nose.

She seemed to have lost consciousness! 

Draco sped up and when he finally reached her, he grabbed her waist and yanked her upwards, but was confronted with a sudden resistance. 

He let go of her and looked down to check whether she had got tangled in some water plants and got a huge shock when he saw a white hand gripping her ankle. 

Draco quickly kicked the hand, but it wouldn't let go. He had to act quickly, since his lungs already began burning, and he was sure he wouldn't make it if he wasted more time here. 

He swam down a little further, pocketing his wand. He needed both his hands now, and he really didn't want to see the person that belonged to the hand anyway. He grabbed the hand firmly, and bit it as hard as he could. 

Nothing happened. Perhaps – he would have swallowed awkwardly, hadn't he been under milk – perhaps the woman was already dead. He _had_ after all come across the term rigor mortis in one of his father's creepier books. It had something to do with slicing up dead people and taking out their innards and weighing their brains.

He closed his eyes, and began peeling off the fingers. And, surprisingly enough, he succeeded in doing so. 

As soon as he'd gotten rid of the death grip on Weasley's ankle he grabbed her waist again and began swimming towards the surface with powerful strokes. 

_Gods, I'm going to drown_, he thought, abhorred. He could already see the surface, but he also saw colored dots before his eyes. 

He swam the last few feet as fast as he could, and then pulled himself and Weasley over the edge, sucking in breath hardly. 

Oh god, he had never been so grateful to be able to breathe in all his life. 

Suddenly he turned and noticed that, while he was breathing short, ragged gasps, Weasley wasn't breathing at all. 

_Fuck!_ he thought,_ what am I supposed to do? _

He looked at her, and was near the verge of panicking when he remembered a Muggle studies essay he had had to write the previous year. He hadn't even wanted to take the subject, but his father of all people had insisted. _You've got to know your enemy Draco…_

CPR. Yes, that was it! He knelt beside Weasleys head and tried to remember everything about it. Open mouth. Get out water. Open tight garments. Pull back head so she doesn't suffocate herself with her tongue. Inhale. Squeeze her nose shut. Hold her chin. Exhale. Do this twice. 

Find the middle of her ribcage. Do odd rib-crushing move with arms outstretched fifteen times. Then again breathing thing. Then again ruining ribcage. Then again breathing- 

Suddenly he felt her move under his touch. She gagged and spat out a mouthful of milk, coughing madly. 

Draco pulled away relievedly. She was alive again! He looked at her, and a surge of sudden curiosity washed over him. He had always wanted to know what it was like to nearly die. The subject of near death experiences had already intrigued him as a little child. At least he said so and used it as an excuse to throw their cat out of his window all the time. Nobody could see a link between the statement and the action, and so they – correctly – assumed he was being cruel. His father even gave him a galleon when he finally succeeded in killing the poor animal. Draco of course had been heartbroken. After all he had nothing to throw out of the window anymore. He had searched the manor in vain back then, but the only animal he had found was his father's eagle owl. Somehow throwing it out of the window hadn't been as much fun.

Weasley was lying on the ground, breathing softly. She slowly opened her eyes, and tried to sit up. 

"I'm not dead, huh?" she asked no-one in particular. Then she turned around and threw up heavily. 

Draco flinched. Well, maybe those experiences weren't as intriguing as they always sounded in books. Usually people who had nearly died said things like 'where is this intense, white light?'

Weasley turned around. And started giggling. Draco frowned. This was highly unusual. 

"You- you – you" she obviously tried to say something, but didn't succeed, since she was laughing so hard. 

"You oughtta see yourself" she finally managed to say "All your Jean-Pièrre stuff you're so proud of, hahaha" she fell into another fit of giggles. "Haha, you, hahaha, look, haha, like a, hahaha, hahahaha!"

Draco was getting impatient. He looked down to his robes and pursed his lips. His beloved designer robes were soaked, and sticky. Yuck! He awkwardly peeled his cloak off his shoulders, and removed his robes. Underneath he was wearing something that might have once been an exquisite, black silk v-neck, but now it was really just an ugly, wet, sticky, black shirt, and his long legs were graced with a pair of equally black pants. Completely forgetting Weasley's presence, he pulled the shirt off, getting himself all tangled up in the wet fabric. When he finally managed to get rid of it, he was swearing softly. (Draco Malfoy swearing softly might be called what everyone else would never let their children hear, not even if being bribed with 2 million galleons) 

***

Ginny woke up, feeling dead. Her lungs burned, and her ribcage ached, as if she had just played foot-mat for an elephant family being visited by a good old friend, perhaps a walrus or something. 

_Don't be stupid_. She told herself. _Walruses don't associate with elephants.  _

She finally opened her eyes, and spat out a large amount of milk. Why was there milk in her mouth. Ah, yes, she had nearly drowned! Pity she was still alive. Her clothes felt rather awkward on her body.

"I'm not dead, huh?" she asked. She didn't address the question to anyone in particular, since she was apparently alone. Where had Malfoy the rat gone? Simply let her drown, huh? 

She turned to scan her surroundings, but just that moment a wave of nausea washed over her, and she threw up heavily. Eugh, disgusting!

She finally managed to turn around and to her utter surprise saw Draco sitting beside her, looking disgusted. 

She took in all of him, and couldn't refrain starting to giggle. His hair was all out of place, and his once so elegant robes were dripping wet, and muddy from sitting on the ground. She tried to tell him, but everytime she started speaking she had to laugh. 

Finally she brought out enough words to tell him what she thought was so funny. 

He stared down at his clothes in horror, and started yanking them off immediately. This was very amusing, particularily his problems with getting his shirt over his head. _Oh, if Ron could see this!_ She thought grinning madly. 

But then, when he had finally managed the difficult task of getting rid of his shirt and ripping it in the process, she stopped grinning. 

He seemed to have completely forgotten she was there! 

She let her eyes travel from his light, silvery blonde hair, to his usually cool gray eyes which were now sparkling with indignation, to his lips, firmly pressed together, turning a little white were the pressure was the strongest, then to his shoulders, and his firm chest, that was, though not very broad, well muscled from playing Quidditch, then to his hands, who were at the moment fiddling with something in the region of his abdomen. Ginny nearly gagged. Was he??? But no, he was only trying to get his pants open. He was _trying to get his pants open_! 

Ginny blushed madly at the thought of Draco Malfoy undressing completely in front of her, and since she was sure he had simply forgotten she was there (which was very likely, seeing that he was obviously concerned with his clothes) and she wanted to spare herself the embarassment, she cleared her throat.

His head snapped up and he looked at her red face, and back to where she was looking. Then his eyes grew wide with sudden realization, and to her big surprise, she saw a faint pink tinge spread across his cheeks. 

She couldn't help it, she just had to grin. "Oh, this is bloody hilarious" she enthused. "Draco Malfoy is BLUSHING! Oh, if I could only get a picture and show it to Ron! He'd pay a million galleons to see this!"

Malfoy blinked and tried to regain his composure. "I always knew there was something gay about your brother, but Weasley, do be kind and tell me, where would he get a million galleons?" he asked after a while. 

Now it was Ginny's turn to blink. She shook her head and tried to think what made Draco think that Ron was gay, but she simply couldn't make it out.

She wanted to say something intelligent, some witty comeback, but since she didn't know what exactly he was referring to, she couldn't. Instead she asked somewhat uncomfortably "Erm, why are you wet?" _Stupid question!_

Draco stared, and then looked at her fiercely "Why am I wet? You ask me why I am wet? Maybe because I was so stupid as to jump in there and save your undeserving neck from drowning." He said icily. 

"Well, you needn't have done so, my neck wasn't drowning, you know." She shot back. 

Then, she looked away, uncomfortably. He had _saved_ her. It was not a Draco thing to do. Harry would have probably saved her. But not Draco. 

"Th-thank you" she muttered quietly. 

"I beg you pardon?" 

"I said thank you for saving me." She looked back at him. He wasn't looking fierce any more. He was looking his usual smug again. 

Ginny felt like she should say something. "I really appreciate that, and I'm, er, sorry for the trouble…and, erm, for your clothes." She said blushing. She was talking nonsense. As always.

"You better be it." He said gloomily, being reminded of his clothes. 

"Give them to me" Ginny finally ordered him. 

"Sorry?" he asked. 

"I said give them to me. You know, your clothes. I can clean them." She explained. "And mend them" she added with a sideways glance at his torn shirt. 

Hesitatingly he reached her his clothes and she took them. She held up the shirt first, and muttered _"Reparo"_ and then used a cleaning, drying and pressing spell on all the garments, reaching them to Draco. 

Then she did the same with her own, damp clothes, and then looked up at Draco. She narrowed her eyes a little and then laughed. 

He looked at her, obviously confused. "What's so funny now" he asked exasperatedly. 

She grinned. "Firstly, your hair is still in absolute disorder, and secondly I noticed that this is the first civil conversation I ever shared with you. I'd celebrate if I hadn't nearly been drowned by a crazy witch- oh my!" her eyes widened in horror. She turned around, searching the edge of the pond. 

She then looked back at Draco. "Is she- ?" she asked quietly. 

Draco now looked very uncomfortable. He cleared his throat. "I …guess so" he said awkwardly "it's really a deep pond, and you know, I can carry only so much. Would you have liked it better if I had let you drown and rescued her?"

Ginny looked away. "No, of course not. Sorry. But, I mean, this is the first time I ever, oh god" she sunk to the ground suddenly starting sobbing. Somebody had just DIED. 

***

Draco was staring at her uncomfortably. He wasn't used to crying girls, and if he saw some, he was usually the cause to why they were crying. And then he normally felt good about it.

This time was different. He was surprised to see strong Ginny Weasley cry, surprised that she let herself down so much. And he felt helpless about it. He wanted her to stop. 

He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt really strange. He didn't know why, but he didn't like seeing her cry, seeing how she hugged herself, head in her knees, sobbing. 

_It's because she's making some really annoying noise!_ He tried to tell himself, but he knew it wasn't that what was bothering him. Draco Malfoy was a good liar. He could fool everybody, if he wanted to – except for himself. 

He didn't know what made him do it, but he sat beside her, and put his arm on her shoulder, patting it awkwardly.

Surprisingly she turned and leaned her head against his shoulder, still sobbing, clutching his cloak with her small hands. 

He hated himself for that fact, but he actually liked the feeling of her body pressed against his. He had completely lost control now. 

Hello, brain to Draco, brain to Draco, can you understand me? This is Ginny fucking Weasley, the girl you HATE, might I remind you.

Draco was positive that he had gone mad now, since he scolded himself for language mentally. Maybe he could write a book on this someday. He could already see it before him: 

_'How to discover you have gone completely gaga. By Draco Malfoy, who would like to stay anonymous, thank you very much'_

_Step One: Rescue the enemy from drowning in a small but deep pond, filled with milk, while a barely dressed woman holds on to her ankle._

_Step Two: When safe on land, do CPR. _

_Step Three: Sit down and take her in your arms while she's sobbing and getting your newly dried clothes all wet again._

_Step Four: Whisper soothing things into her ear_

At this point, Draco snapped out of IT. Whisper soothing things into her ear? He couldn't possibly have done that, now, could he?

But he didn't have enough time to try and remember, since he was interrupted rudely by some guy simply falling from the sky in front of him, landing on the ground with a loud THUD. 

***

Ginny looked up from Draco's shoulder, quickly forgetting about the recent death. She stared at the man in front of them, who had just stood up and brushed the dirt off his clothes. 

He was wearing tight pants and a tight T-shirt in a really disturbing bright green, silly reddish-brown shoes that reminded her of mocassins. She looked up from his ridiculous garments to his face. He had a pointed nose and pointed face, but entirely different from Draco's pointed features. Draco, well, with him it looked normal, human, but this guy there, he had a pointy nose and a pointy face. She felt sorry for the girl who would someday think that it might be a good idea to kiss this guy, since Giny was positive the poor thing would slice her cheek. 

She then proceeded in mustering that fellow. He was grinning madly, showing a row of unnatuarally white teeth. His amber eyes were sparkling like those of a lunatic. 

He had bright red hair, that placed hers completely in the shadow. It had the color of tomatoes. But that wasn't the oddest thing about his coiffure. There were feathers sticking from his head in every direction, and because of some unfathomable reason there were also feathers sticking out from his ears. 

Ginny tried to say something. "Erm"

The guy looked at them, bewildered. "Well?" he asked impatiently. 

Ginny and Draco only stared at him blankly. 

The guy rolled his eyes. "Aren't you going to run? It's me, the Flying Maniac!" 

Ginny frowned. "You rather look like a falling maniac to me!" she finally said. 

The guy frowned too. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you, since I've got feathers sticking out of my ears" he explained.

Now it was Ginny who rolled her eyes. She got up and pulled the feathers out of his ears, throwing them away. 

"Hey!" the guy shrieked. "How dare you! You pulled the feathers out of my ears. Nobody bloody pulls the feathers out of the ears of  the Flying Maniac!" he boomed.

"Why not?" Ginny inquired. 

"Why not?" the guy repeated unbelievingly. "Because. I. Am. The. Flying. Maniac. Goddammit!"

Draco, who had also gotten up by now lifted an eyebrow. "So?" he asked. 

"You're not from around here, are you?" the Flying Maniac  asked. 

They both shook their heads. 

"Ah, well, I'm the Flying Maniac, and everybody here is afraid of me." He explained.

"Why" Ginny asked 

"Well, come to think of it, I don't know. They are just afraid of me, since I am the Flying Maniac. Can't you accept that?" he asked rather testily. 

"Why do they call you the Flying Maniac?" Ginny asked.

"You can be pretty stubborn, eh? Fine, they call me the Flying Maniac, because I am completely bonkers, and because I can fly. Happy now?" he snapped, rolling his eyes in an extremely insane manner.

"Not quite. I don't believe you can fly. I just saw you falling."

"Well, I can fly, see?" The Flying Maniac said, suddenly floating in mid-air, crossing his legs. "Thing is – I have some difficulties with landing." And as suddenly as he had started floating, he stopped, and landed roughly on his bum. 

Ginny eyed him, contemplating what to do with him. "So…you get around quite a lot?" she asked. 

The Flying Maniac got to his feet and nodded. 

"Excuse us for a moment, we'll be right back" Ginny said, and then grabbed Draco by the elbow, dragging him a few feet away. 

"He knows the landscape. He knows where to go. He could help us get back." 

Draco stared. "You want that imbecile to come with us? Who even said that we were going somewhere?"

"We are. And he'll help us. Pasta" 

"That's Basta" Draco muttered under his breath while watching her retreating back. "Pasta's something you eat."

She walked back to the Flying Maniac. "We need to go somewhere, and we need your help to do so." she told him.

"You need my help?" he asked slowly. 

"Yeah, we need you as a guide." she explained.

"Where do you want to go?" he asked

Ginny blinked. Yeah, where did they want to go? 

"Um…I'm not sure. See, this is a parallel universe or something, and we don't belong here, we want to go back to where we belong."

The Flying Maniac stared at her blankly. 

"Erm, try to see it like this. The universe is a pair of pants, right?" she tried.

"No"

"I mean, imagine it was a pair of pants. Then, we're coming from it's left leg. The left leg doesn't know anything about the right leg, and vice versa. But somehow we managed to get from the left leg into the right leg, which would be here. And we are trying to get back somehow." she looked at him hopefully.

"The universe is a pair of pants? What's all this crap you're talking about? I thought I was the Maniac here?" the Flying Maniac looked at Ginny as if she had gotten completely mad. 

"Okay, forget everything Weasley said!" Draco intervened. "She's a bit confused, and not the brightest crayon in the box, to be honest. What she is trying to tell you is that we first come from another dimension of some sort, and that we want to go back there."

The Maniac looked thoughtful. "Is it a women's pair of pants?" he finally asked.

Draco sighed. "Listen, we just need to find somebody who knows about real powerful magic. You know somebody like that?"

"Powerful Magic? Ah, you'd be talking of This Guy With The Amazingly Long Beard! I know where he lives, and I can show you the way if you want to. Shall I?" the Maniac seemed relieved that they had ceased talking about confusing pants.

"Yeah, that'd be great. What's his name?" Ginny asked. 

"Well, nobody knows. He's just 'This Guy With The Amazingly Long Beard'. You got any problems if my best friend accompanies us?"

Ginny looked at Draco, who shrugged. "As long as it gets us out of here" he murmured. 

"Great!" the Flying Maniac beamed. Then he let out some sort if strangled cry, or a whistle or something. Not much later, a huge barn owl came flying towards them, landing on the outstretched arm of the flying maniac, who was smiling proudly.

"Everybody, this is my best friend. Quoth, the raven." He announced. 

Ginny cleared her throat. "This, erm, looks like an owl to me" she said.

"This is Quoth, the raven" The Flying Maniac insisted. 

"Whatever" Ginny muttered. Suddenly her head snapped up, and she said. "Gay! Now I understand!"

Draco cocked his head to the side, and looked at her questioningly. 

"I just realized what you meant! The thing about Ron being gay! I didn't mean he wanted a photo of you half naked, it was the blushing thing I was referring to!"

Draco blinked. "I know, Weasley. I was being sarcastic."

Ginny pursed her lip and turned around. "Is it far to that beard guy? In that case we'd better get going." 

"This Guy With The Amazingly Long Beard" the Flying Maniac corrected automatically. "Yes, it's quite far."

"Fine. Let's go and look for a broom or something" Ginny suggested. 

She set towards the hut, and entered the small shed that was attached to it. Draco followed her, and lit his wand.

What they saw didn't please them at all. There was one single broom leaning against the wall. 

Ginny closed her eyes. "Um, Malfoy, I think we have to share" she said, not daring to look at him. 

Draco exhaled slowly. "We have to?" he asked dangerously. 

"Yeah, we have to. And don't try to scare me, since it's pointless."

"You could stay here and I'll go seek that beard guy!" Draco suggested. ("This Guy With The Amazingly Long Beard" the Flying Maniac corrected.)

"Forget it. Then you go back home and let me sit here until I grow a beard!" Ginny said indignantly. 

"I certainly won't share a broom with you, Weasley!"

"Would you sit still for one single minute?" Draco snapped irritably. 

"I already sat still for one single minute five minutes ago." Ginny snapped back. 

"You're killing me, Weasley!" Draco complained.

"And this broom's killing me!" Ginny whined. "It rides just like dad's vacuum cleaner!"

They had been flying through the cool night air for over two hours now, and were at the end of their nerves. Draco was sitting at the front and trying to ride the broom, and Ginny, who was sitting behind him, clutching his robes, was trying to do exactly the same. Unfortunately that could only be said about the wish of merely riding the broom, but not about the directions they were heading. Whenever Draco was getting the broom to swerve to the right, Ginny tugged at it in the same moment, trying to go left.

Meanwhile the Flying Maniac was having the time of his life, watching them, and Ginny got the feeling that even Quoth, the raven, who was actually an owl was laughing at them. 

Finally she gave up and let Draco go wherever he wanted, the journey going much faster now. But still the broom didn't go as smooth as she'd wished it would. Sometimes it'd just drop a few feet to scare hell out of her, and then it'd buckle. It was like riding a bike on the lawn. You constantly bumped up and down. 

Ginny, whose backside was already beginning to ache, thought to herself how that had to feel for a guy. But she hadn't seen Draco flinch even once, and was admiring his self control. She was sure that if he was any other guy now he'd sit there complaining about 'scrambled eggs'. Of course she was quoting Ron now.

Half an hour later Ginny was so tired of sitting on a broom, trying not to fall down, and trying to ignore Draco's constant complaints (and then him pointing out that he was of course not complaining. Draco Malfoy would never complain!) that she fell asleep, resting her head on Draco's back comfortably, inhaling the mixture of his scent and the one of the cool night air and the forest below them.

When Draco felt Weasleys head sink down and come to a rest on his shoulders, he stiffened. 

Bloody phantastic! He thought glumly. Now I have to ride a broom that has an affinity with  turning right and jumps every half a minute, share it with a Weasley of all people, and now the stupid wench falls asleep on my back, and probably drools all over my designer-wear!

But, as much as he tried to deny it, he couldn't help but feel comfortable with the girl pressed against his body. 

After half an hour of smooth travelling – if you could call nearly falling off the broom everytime you decide to take a turn to your left smooth - Draco suddenly heard a cackling sound from his left. 

When he turned his head to see where it was coming from he nearly groaned loudly. The Flying Maniac was flying beside him, on his back, and cackling madly. He had been doing so somewhile ago, and Draco hadn't really missed the rather stupid sound. 

Back then, Weasley had still been awake, and she had asked the red-haired weirdo about it. He had just shrugged and murmured something about a reputation to loose.

"Oh, hell, what's it now?" Draco snapped, as the stupid guy wouldn't shut up. 

"'m tired" the Flying Maniac mumbled.

Draco rolled his eyes. This guy was like a baby. Just instead of crying if he wanted something, he started cackling. 

"Fine, I'm tired too. Let's go down and get some sleep. Do you see that clearing over there? I think that'll do" he forced out as calm and friendly as possible. Weasley had threatened to do something really violent to him if he was impolite to that dumbass, including a hatchet, an enema with a bagpipe and oddly enough a pair of muggle surgical gloves. He wasn't terribly intimidated by her threat, but he didn't want to talk about the subject any further, since the thought of what she might to with a pair of surgical gloves made him shudder. Maybe she would blow them up! 

The Flying Maniac nodded in agreement, and as soon as they reached the clearing, prepared for the decent.

There he was, the one Person the Wizarding World had been dreading for so long, dressed entirely in black. His red eyes were gleaming like hot coals, his pink robes and necklaces vanished. At the very moment, he was peeling an apple and merrily singing an old ballad while doing so. The lyrics sounded vaguely like: 

I killed me momma

I killed me daddy

I killed me sister

I killed me brother

And now I'm alone

And my knife isn't sharp anymore

I oughtta go see ol' Sally 

From up the road

And strangle her to get her knife.

I strangled ol' Sally

From up The Road

But she han't no knife

So I went down

To town

And told Mr. Barber to cut me hair

But the man was half blind

So he cut me throat

Now I'm sittin a'bleedin'

On the river bank

And offering his corpse to the waves

He dareth me to wound

I dareth him to kill

And now I got a sharp knife again

To go kill the rest

Whom I first have to find

But if I do, I'll slice them in two

Ginny awoke startled, when she heard someone scream, then a loud thud, and then somebody else muttering "What a jackass!"

tbc… perhaps, that is.

Just be nice and review, will you?

Ri


End file.
